Duke rolled over No. 6 Georgetown Saturday to open its season with seven consecutive wins. The No. 2 Blue Devils (7-0), who were led by junior Kristen Waagbo, topped the Hoyas, 10-8, and improved to 5-0 against ranked teams.
"We had a great first half," head coach Kerstin Kimel said. "We really stuck to the game plan and attacked Georgetown's weak points."
Although the Hoyas (4-1) scored just two minutes into the game, Duke took control from there with a 7-1 run over the next 18 minutes. Waagbo was crucial to the spurt as she contributed three goals and two assists to the Blue Devil barrage. With Duke up 7-1, Georgetown's Sara Zorzi and Lucy Poole each found the cage to cut the Blue Devil lead to four. But Waagbo and freshman Carolyn Davis scored back-to-back goals to put Duke up 9-4 at the half.
"Kristen took advantage of some really great scoring opportunities, and when she went in to score, she finished," Kimel said. "Her four goals in the first half set the tone for us. She was great on distributing the ball too and made really good decisions on offense."
The Hoyas came out strong in the second half, scoring four unanswered goals to reduce the Blue Devil lead to one. Davis finally broke the Duke's scoring drought with a free-position goal with only 5:25 left to play, putting the Blue Devils up two, the game's final margin.
"In the second half, we struggled to maintain composure and had a hard time winning the draw," Kimel said. "Our girls kind of got nervous as Georgetown came back. We didn't stick with our offense and we rushed our shots."
Waagbo's four goals and two assists take her season tally to 19 goals and 13 assists, moving her into a tie with Lauren Gallagher for fourth on Duke's all-time career assist chart with 53.
Blue Devil goalie Megan Huether had seven saves and with the help of a tightened defense held the Hoyas scoreless for the final 10 minutes in their first loss of the season.
Duke had opened its spring break with a win over then-No. 6 Princeton, 13-11, March 12 at Princeton Stadium.
The game was close through the first 30 minutes, with Duke holding a 7-6 advantage at the half thanks to three goals by Waagbo, two from Davis and one each from Leigh Jester and Katie Chrest. The Blue Devils kicked off the second half with five quick goals to lead 12-6. Princeton fought its way back into the game, though, cutting the Duke lead to two with 27 seconds left, but it was too little, too late.
"[We are] excited about where we are in the season," Kimel said. "We're 7-0, we probably have played the hardest schedule in the country, and we haven't even played our best lacrosse yet so we're pretty excited about that."
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