For seven straight years, Duke has found itself two wins away from a national championship.
Advancing with two one-goal victories in NCAA Tournament play, the Blue Devils will make the trip this weekend to the place where this streak started, the City of Brotherly Love. Winners of 12 of its last 13 contests, seventh-seeded Duke (14-5) will square off with Cornell (14-3) at Lincoln Financial Field Saturday at 2:30 with a trip to the national championship game on the line.
But the trip to Philadelphia wasn’t one the Blue Devils were expecting to make after a 2-4 start. After some personnel changes before the team’s first matchup with defending national champion Loyola March 8, Duke sprung to life and has dropped just one decision since.
“In the beginning, there’s a little disarray because we’re trying to find ourselves,” junior attack Josh Dionne said. “What we try to stress is that the team we are at the beginning of the season isn’t the team we’re going to be at the end, when it really counts.”
The Big Red are also playing the best lacrosse of their season in the month of May. The only unseeded team remaining in the tournament, Cornell notched two blowout victories against ranked opponents to earn a trip to championship weekend.
No. 6 Maryland was the Big Red’s first victim, falling 16-8 on its home turf. Cornell then returned to College Park, Md. the next weekend, where it drubbed No. 3 seed Ohio State 16-6. Attack Steve Mock scored seven goals for the Big Red—all of which came in the first half. Senior Rob Pannell added eight points of his own, registering two goals and six assists.
Offensive outbursts like this are not uncommon for Cornell. Combining for 32 goals in two games, the Big Red are the highest-scoring team in the NCAA Tournament. A Tewaaraton Trophy finalist, Pannell is the main offensive facilitator for Cornell, ranking second in Division I with 95 points. He leads his team with 53 assists.
Mock is the team’s leading goal-scorer with 59 tallies on the season. The Big Red also have three more players who have recorded 25 goals or more on the year in midfielders Connor Buczek and Max Van Bourgondien and attack Matt Donovan.
“What happens is that sometimes everyone focuses on the star player, but you don’t get 53 assists if your teammates don’t catch the ball and put it in the back of the goal,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “It’s always a team effort. People have to get out of that star player’s way, they have to catch the ball from him and set him up and work with him, so [Cornell] is a lot more than just a star. And the danger in playing teams who have big players is falling into that trap.”
But Duke is capable of putting large numbers on the scoreboard as well. The Blue Devils have now scored 11 goals or more in 12 consecutive contests.
The Blue Devils’ leading scorer, junior attack Jordan Wolf, has registered 74 points on the season. But it has been Duke’s balanced offensive attack that Danowski said makes the team much more dangerous and consistent.
“This is the most balanced group of young men that I have ever been with, and it’s been a really delightful experience,” Danowski said. “I think the beauty of this particular team is that we rely on no one. Guys can have a bad day and feel like they’re not going to hurt the team.”
At the faceoff X, junior Brendan Fowler will face his toughest competition of the postseason. The first-team All-American will square off with Cornell’s Doug Tesoriero. Fowler has won 64.9 percent of his draws this season and sits just eight faceoff victories away from the NCAA’s single-season record. Tesoriero has won 59.2 percent of the faceoffs he has taken, and will be Fowler’s first opponent of the postseason that has won more than 50 percent of his draws coming into the contest.
Fowler’s performance at the X also improves as the game goes on. The junior has won 71.7 percent of his draws in the fourth quarter, including 5-of-6 faceoffs in the final period of Duke’s comeback victory against Notre Dame in the NCAA quarterfinals.
“I just think I get more comfortable as the game goes on. I get to feel out the refs and feel out the other guys, so I think I just get more comfortable towards the fourth quarter,” Fowler said. “They have a great faceoff guy and strong wings, so it’s going to be a battle.”
With a battle with the Big Red looming, Danowski said that the key for his team would be sticking to the gameplan that taken them through 10 near-perfect weeks of lacrosse.
“At this time of year, you’ve been practicing since September so if you decide you have to change things that’s probably not going to be successful. You have to be you. You have to come out here and be relaxed. The hope is that during these last Final Fours the guys have gained some experience so they won’t be overwhelmed.”
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