On the heels of five consecutive victories, No. 3 Duke will entertain ACC foe Virginia at Koskinen Stadium Saturday at 1 p.m.
The Blue Devils (9-1, 1-1 in the ACC) are hoping to continue their winning streak as they carry over into the latter half of the season and prepare for the conference tournament.
“I think we’ve done a great job, and I’m really happy with where we are,” head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “With a younger team, you have to anticipate that you’re going to have a little bit of a rollercoaster at times, and you have to have patience not just among the coaching staff, but also among the players.”
Despite the team’s nearly perfect record, Kimel noted that many of the victories were closely contested.
“The players have to understand that there are some good days and some not so good days, and they have to not let themselves get so emotionally caught up in that,” Kimel said. “You realize that there are some days of frustration and that we’re not always going to play pretty lacrosse, but with the amount of work we put in, you’re going to get better.”
Kimel’s squad has done an admirable job responding to adversity. After losing just less than a month ago to No. 2 Maryland in its fifth game of the season, Duke has earned five straight victories, including two against top-10 teams.
The ACC is composed of five top-10 teams, adding to Duke’s already difficult schedule, which also includes a contest against No. 1 Northwestern next month. Tomorrow, the Blue Devils will be facing the No. 5 Cavaliers (6-3, 1-1)—and Duke will have to be at the top of its game to extend the win streak to six.
“Virginia is a great team, and from our standpoint, we’ve prepared ourselves as best we could to get better this week,” Kimel said. “What we know to expect is that it’s going to be a good game, a close game. We have to be ready to battle for 60 minutes in all aspects of our game.”
The team’s motto all season has been to focus on each game individually rather than look at the schedule as a whole, something the team is emphasizing before the clash with the Cavaliers.
“In these ACC games, if you allow yourselves to get too high or low emotionally, those things can come back to bite you,” Kimel said. “For us, we take it one play at a time, one day at a time, one game at a time, and that take on everything has served us well throughout the season.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.