Duke women's lacrosse falls to Johns Hopkins on Senior Day despite second half comeback

Although the Blue Devils scored the final seven goals Sunday afternoon, their late scoring surge was not enough to overcome a large first half deficit.

No. 4 Duke fell behind 9-1 against No. 17 Johns Hopkins, and a late draw victory for the Blue Jays enabled them to hold on for a 9-8 win to spoil Senior Day at Koskinen Stadium. The Johns Hopkins defense, propelled by numerous remarkable saves from senior goalkeeper KC Emerson, held the Blue Devils to only one goal in the first half.

"It was a little too much a little too late,” Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “You have to be able to show up and play a 60 minute game and we played about a 30 minute game today. And a lot of that has to do with what they did but also some of it is that we need to make sure that we are ready to go out of the gate.”

Sunday's loss came on the heels of a 14-10 defeat against Syracuse in the ACC tournament semifinals April 24, sending Duke (14-4) into the NCAA tournament on a two-game losing streak.

In the teams' first meeting since 2007, the Blue Devils found themselves down two goals to Johns Hopkins (14-3) in the first four minutes of play of their regular season finale. The Blue Jays found the back of the net twice before the Blue Devils even managed to get the ball to their offensive side of the field.

Duke’s offense was held quiet for the first 40 minutes of the game with the exception of a free position goal by senior attack Brigid Smith six minutes into the contest. Johns Hopkins showed why its defense ranks seventh in the NCAA, forcing five turnovers and recording eight clears in the first half.

But the Blue Devil upperclassmen made sure Duke would not go down without a fight on Senior Day.

With less than 20 minutes remaining, the Blue Devils cracked the Blue Jays' code, scoring four goals in a six-minute span. Captain Taylor Trimble notched three consecutive goals in less than two minutes to shift the momentum into Duke's corner. Fellow seniors Kerrin Maurer, Katie Trees and Erin Tenneson combined for three more goal to bring the game back to a one-goal margin.

But Johns Hopkins won the draw after the Blue Devils' eighth goal and was able to secure the victory as Duke could not net an equalizing goal before time ran out.

“We fought so hard in the second half, but it just came too late. In a way this is almost a good test that shows we can fight back and we have more in our gas tank than we realize," Trimble said. "If anything, this will just help us know that if we are in this position again we can get ourselves out of it. It’s just a matter of recognizing it early and not waiting so long to flip the switch."

The Blue Devil seniors dominated the scoring column as they have all season, contributing all eight goals for the game. The senior class was honored in a ceremony on the field following the game.

“[Playing for Duke] is an honor. The life lessons from this program and the people that are involved are what I’m going to take away from Senior Day,” said Maurer, who extended her streak of consecutive games with at least one point to 44 in the loss. The Setauket, N.Y., native’s assist on Trimble’s second goal of the day also brought her within one of tying Duke’s all-time record held by Kristen Waagbo.

Despite leading the ACC in goals against average, junior goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea struggled in the first half of the game Sunday, allowing seven goals and recording only two saves.

“I don’t think we played tough one-on-one defense. I think we weren’t putting Kelsey in a position where she could make good saves,” Kimel said.

Duryea found her grove toward the end of the game, shutting the Blue Jays out for the final 18 minutes.

Sunday evening, Duke was awarded the No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament and will host either James Madison or Southern California May 10 at 2 p.m. After reaching the NCAA quarterfinals in each of the last three years, the Blue Devils will look to continue their streak of strong tournament showings.

“Tonight marks a new season in terms of the postseason,” Trimble said.

Although Duke was not able to end its season with a victory, it is looking ahead to the NCAA tournament and took a learning lesson away from the loss.

Kimel said she is confident that her team will be able to recover from the back-to-back losses and regroup for a postseason run toward the national title game in Philadelphia May 24, alluding to the fact that with final exams completed, her players can commit fully to lacrosse.

“This is the time of the year that we love, where we become professional lacrosse players and we can really focus on trying to being the best team we can moving forward into the postseason," Kimel said. "I expect us to turn around quickly, take a good hard look at what we didn’t do well and fix some things this week moving into postseason.”