With final exams in the rearview mirror, the Blue Devils have one more hurdle to clear before the start of the NCAA tournament.
Led by its eight veteran seniors, No. 4 Duke will battle No. 17 Johns Hopkins for a non-conference clash at Koskinen Stadium Sunday at 11:30 a.m. For the Blue Devils, the Senior Day game will mark the end of their regular season and their last rehearsal before the NCAA tournament.
“[For the NCAA tournament,] we’ll try to step back and focus on simple details,” Duke assistant coach Lauren Morton told GoDuke.com. “Defensively, [the team needs to] hustle every ground ball, stay after draw controls, stick to our game plan and try to take away some of the key pieces of another team’s offense. Offensively, we just need to be really simple, finding easy open opportunities, finishing our shots and just communicating well across the field all together.”
Duke (14-3) has boasted an impressive offensive attack all season and will look to continue to capitalize on scoring opportunities against the Blue Jays (13-3). The Blue Devls rank 18th in the nation in scoring at 13.0 goals per contest and have scored in double figures in all but one of their 17 games.
Six of Duke's eight seniors have paced the team’s offense all season and will get their final chance to put on a regular season show at home Sunday.
Kerrin Maurer—who was named to the ACC All-Tournament team after a five-goal, two-assist performance—is Duke’s top striker with 36 goals. Fellow senior Brigid Smith ranks second on the team with 33 tallies and classmates Katie Trees and Taylor Trimble are close behind with 29 each. Two other seniors, Erin Tenneson and Chelsea Landon, have found the back of the net 12 times each.
Maurer also ranked fourth in the conference in assists, as she has fed her teammates 26 times this campaign. Smith and Trees have combined for 33 assists.
“[Maurer] is a student of the game,” Morton said. “She has found a way to be savvy, to finish plays and realistically to find other people. I think that’s why she’s so balanced in terms of assists and goals. She’s someone who really helps the team just as much as there’s a focus on her as an individual player.”
The Blue Devils will need the veteran attackers' best against Johns Hopkins, one of the stingiest defenses in the country. The Blue Jays allow just 7.0 goals per contest, the seventh-best mark in the nation.
The Blue Devils’ defense has also put up impressive numbers of its own this season. Junior goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea averages 7.5 goals against and has totaled 118 saves in the squad's 17 games. Gabby Moise—Duke's lone senior defender—has tallied 10 ground balls and two draw controls this season.
Although Duryea is usually Duke’s starting goalkeeper, backup senior Angel Thompson could see some minutes against Johns Hopkins. The senior from The Woodlands, Texas, has seen action in four contests this season.
Johns Hopkins enters the game scoring 12.1 goals per contest, paced by junior midfielder Dene’ DiMartino's 35 scores. Freshman midfielder Emily Kenul and senior attacker Jen Cook have delivered 17 assists apiece in 16 games.
Duke will look to improve its 7-3 record against ranked foes and a victory against the Blue Jays would give the Blue Devils the confidence boost they need before the NCAA tournament kicks off.
The last time Duke played the Blue Jays was May 19, 2007, a 12-7 Blue Devil win that put the squad into the Final Four.
Following Sunday's game, Duke will await its seed from the NCAA tournament selection committee. The tournament field will be revealed Sunday at 9 p.m.
For Maurer and company, Sunday's Senior Day ceremony and the selection show will mark the beginning of their last chance at a Final Four—a mark her class has yet to reach in its first three years in Durham.
“All throughout these years, we [the seniors] always talked about what [we] want [our] teammates to remember [us] by,” Maurer told GoDuke.com. “We’re so proud of being a part of it so leaving a remembrance and legacy behind is meaningful.”
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