After a hard-fought 15-14 loss against Syracuse in the ACC title game, the Blue Devils return home for one final regular-season game before the start of the NCAA tournament.
As finals week draws to a close, No. 5 Duke readies itself to take on Boston University at 1:45 p.m. Sunday at Koskinen Stadium. The ACC runner-up Blue Devils have won four of their last five games and are riding a wave of momentum from April into the first weekend of May. With a matchup against the struggling Terriers—losers of five straight—Duke is looking to finish the season strong before awaiting the selection committee’s seeding decisions.
“We don’t label games,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “We just talk about it’s the next game and we try to make a big deal out of the next game…. We just really try to treat each game like it’s really important. You get so few of these and you practice all year for these opportunities. Every game presents different challenges.”
Duke (11-5) entered the ACC tournament April 24 as the No. 4 seed but pulled off a first round upset against top-seeded Notre Dame to get a shot at the conference title. Despite falling just short, the Blue Devils now look forward to getting back on the field to face their next challenge.
With a win Sunday, Duke sits in prime position to host a first-round game in the NCAA tournament as one of the top eight seeds. Heading into the ACC tournament, the Blue Devils were No. 4 in RPI and had the strongest strength of schedule in the nation. Duke has not lost a game outside of the top five, with the current top four teams—Syracuse, Notre Dame, Denver and North Carolina—being the only squads to knock off the Blue Devils.
“We’ll probably get together to watch [the selection show] at some point, but we try not to make a big deal out of it,” Danowski said. “This is way out of our control. We know that we’re going to play another week, we just don’t know who, where or when.”
Although Boston University (6-7) is not at the level of ACC competition, Duke could still have its hands full trying to topple the Terriers. The squad may have finished the season in the bottom half of the Patriot League, but defeated then-No. 18 Colgate—the eventual Patriot League champion—18-11 March 7.
Sophomore midfielder Cal Dearth and faceoff specialist Sam Talkow could prove difficult matchups for the Blue Devils. Dearth was a First-Team All-Patriot League selection this season with a team-high 41 points, and Talkow made the second team as a dominant faceoff man. The sophomore won 66.2 percent of his faceoffs and averaged 7.3 ground balls per game this season.
The Duke offense will look to an increasingly experienced attack to put Boston University away with ease. Led by freshman attackman Justin Guterding—recently named ACC Rookie of the Year—the offense will attempt to continue its 14.6 goals per game firepower. Guterding leads the ACC this season with 46 goals—11 shy of Zach Greer’s freshman record at Duke from 2005—and will look to continue his success Sunday.
“We have a lot of confidence in our guys,” Danowski said. “We are really proud of what they have done this year coming out of nowhere and I’m sure they are going to come out and compete on Sunday.”
The Terriers will also have to find a way to slow down the Blue Devils in the midfield. Junior midfielder Myles Jones is recovering from a hand injury that he suffered prior to the ACC tournament and is instrumental to feeding the ball to Guterding and his fellow attackmen Case Matheis and Jack Bruckner for scoring opportunities.
“[Myles] hasn’t missed any practice—hasn’t missed anything this week,” Danowski said. “It really hasn’t even come up to be honest.”
As the experience piles up and health becomes less of an issue, Duke looks poised to move into Sunday without any lingering concerns of youth or health that plagued the team in the early stages of the season. With that in mind, the final act is approaching, and the team is looking to finish strong in the coming weeks.
“It’s all bonus time because this is something that has been earned and it’s always like an honor just to be practicing,” Danowski said. “There’ll be 51 teams that’ll go home and 18 get to stick around for another week. It’s fun.”
The selection committee will announce the 18-team field Sunday on ESPNU at 9 p.m.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.