Duke women's lacrosse capped off its regulation season this weekend with its ninth- consecutive win. Trampling both the seventh-ranked Yale Bulldogs (9-2) as well as Notre Dame (7-3), the Blue Devils (11-2) enter the ACC tournament next weekend with high hopes.
"It was a tough road trip," said coach Kirsten Kimel. "We played two tough teams back-to-back. I was extremely proud of the effort this weekend."
First facing Notre Dame, Duke played a tight opening half, only to run away with a 16-4 victory in the second 30 minutes of play.
The Blue Devils set the tone of the game in the first 37 seconds as senior attacker Claire Finn slipped a goal past Notre Dame goalie Jen White. Six minutes later, Kate Kaiser, who has tallied 17 goals in the past four games, netted the first of her four goals.
Ending the Duke shutout, Notre Dame midfielder Danielle Shearer scored at the 20-minute mark, tentatively breaking Duke's momentum. However, Kaiser and Courtney Rodgers quickly responded with back-to-back scores for Duke.
Unwilling to relent, the Fighting Irish tallied three more goals, leaving them trailing by one at halftime.
"Notre Dame was outplaying us the first half," said Kimel, "however, we came out on fire in the second."
Running up an 11-goal lead in the second 30 minutes, Duke certainly did come out on fire. Kaiser added two of the 11, while Lauren Gallagher completed a hat trick. Rodgers, Kelly Dirks and Cheryl Lynn Hornton also contributed to the second-half slaughter.
Saturday's match against Yale proved to be a bit more of a struggle, as the Blue Devils only registered one-third of the goals they had the previous day.
"We struggled offensively and just didn't finish our shots," Kimel said. "However, the defense carried us through, creating an impressive amount of turnovers."
The Bulldogs opened the scoring at the 23-minute mark. Although the Blue Devils compiled twice as many shots as Yale, only Gallagher and Claire Sullivan scored against Yale goalie Amanda Sisley, who recorded 14 saves. Duke once again led by a one-goal margin at the half.
Kate Flately of the Bulldogs gave Duke a scare at the beginning of the second half, evening the score at 2-2, but Duke goalie Kristen Foster held the net for the remaining minutes. Despite 12 denied scoring attempts, the Blue Devils still managed to pull ahead by three with subsequent goals by Gallagher, Jessica Bennett, and Kaiser to seal the game.
After finishing out its regular season 11-2, Duke heads to the ACC tournament in Orlando next weekend to take on rival North Carolina in what will be a heated rematch.
Duke has played Carolina to a narrow one-goal game the past five times the teams have met. Early this spring, the Blue Devils squeaked out a goal in the last two minutes of play to defeat the Tar Heels 10-9.
For Kimel, tournament success will depend on this initial match against North Carolina.
"We are a better team now than when we played them in March," she said, "However, they are stronger too. Right now we must take this tournament one game at a time and not underestimate our opponent."
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