Coming off of their worst loss in the past 12 seasons, the Blue Devils will look to rebound in another important ACC game this weekend.
Duke will head down Tobacco Road to face North Carolina Sunday at 1 p.m. at Fetzer Field in Chapel Hill, looking to make amends for a 19-7 loss at the hands of top-ranked Syracuse last weekend. The Blue Devils want to take the defeat as a learning experience and grow from it.
“It’s one game of the first nine,” head coach John Danowski said. “And playing in front of 12,000 people in the Carrier Dome is a great experience, if you allow the learning aspect to take hold.… We’re going to be better and strong for it.”
However, defeating the Tar Heels will be no easy task. This North Carolina squad is one of its best in recent years and heads into Sunday’s matchup coming off of its first defeat of the season, falling to Maryland 10-8, and will look to pick up their first win of conference play.
The Tar Heels (9-1, 0-0 in the ACC) boast one of the strongest scoring offenses in the country, led by senior attackman Jimmy Bitters—second in all of Division I with 52 points—and sophomore attackman Luke Goldstock, who comes into Sunday’s game seventh in the country in goals per game. Stopping North Carolina’s high powered offense will be a tough ask for a Blue Devils’ defense short on confidence after letting in 19 goals last weekend, but will be necessary for the team to secure a victory.
For Duke (7-2, 1-1), rebounding after such a difficult loss will be a tough ask for this young squad, especially on the road against the rival Tar Heels. The team is looking to get back to its fundamentals to help it to victory.
“We’ve got to play really good on the ball,” Danowski said. "We’re hoping that our guys learn from last week playing against two crafty attackmen.”
After a game in which the team struggled in every aspect of play, it will need improvement across the board. Veteran midfielders Myles Jones and Deemer Class will be key to getting the team back on track. Faceoff man Jack Rowe will also look to exploit North Carolina’s relatively weak performance at the X.
Duke has dominated the Tobacco Road rivalry, posting a 14-2 record during Danowski's reign as head coach, and the matchup is something that the team looks forward to every season.
“We respect North Carolina so much for their tradition,” Danowski said. “They have a wonderful lacrosse tradition, much stronger than ours, so we look up to them and we are so happy to have an opportunity to compete with them. Everyone gets up for the Duke-North Carolina game."
As a young squad, Sunday will be the first time for many Blue Devils to play in this pressure-filled rivalry game. Nerves, however, should not be a factor.
“Everyone gets up for the Duke-North Carolina game,” Danowski said. “The fact that it’s Carolina, that it’s on a Sunday, that it’s on ESPNU, because of all of those things, the guys are going to be ready to play.”
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