Duke women's lacrosse falls behind early, can't recover against Georgetown

It took a little while for the Blue Devils to get going Wednesday, but by the time they did, there was not enough time left on the clock.

After falling behind 5-0 in the first half, No. 14 Duke's furious late-game rally fell just short in a 10-9 loss to Georgetown at Koskinen Stadium. The Hoyas were ready to go from the opening faceoff, scoring five quick goals in the first 21 minutes, and held on to fend off a Blue Devil squad that made a 10-5 blowout into a tight 10-9 contest in the final 20 minutes.

Defender Kristen Bandos paved the way for Georgetown (1-4) for its first win of the season with a team-high three goals. The senior opened up the scoring less than two minutes into the contest with her 10th goal of the year, an unassisted shot that beat Blue Devil goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea. Duryea recorded seven saves on the afternoon and became just the third player in program history to rack up 500 career saves.

Bandos tacked on one more goal in the first half, an answer to Duke's first goal of the afternoon that kept the Hoya lead at five. The Blue Devils (4-4) made up some ground in the rest of the first half thanks to goals from Maddy Acton and Olivia Jenner, heading into halftime down just 6-3.

Duke controlled the draw well in the first half—possessing seven of the 10 draws—but an effective Georgetown defense that came up with seven first-half clears helped keep the attack going the other way.

The team's traded goals during the beginning of the second half, and it appeared as if the Hoyas were going to cruise to an easy victory after Francesca Whitehurst but them up 10-5 with 16:45 left to play.

But suddenly, the Blue Devils turned on the jets. First, sophomore Kyra Harney—who notched her fourth hat trick of the season—converted on a free-position shot to cut the lead to 10-6.

Nearly 10 minutes flew by before Duke struck again, this time on Acton's second goal of the afternoon. Senior Kelci Smesko tallied her 18th goal of the season to draw the Blue Devils within two with less than three minutes remaining. Smesko fed Harney for her third goal of the game, but by then there were only 25 seconds remaining—not enough time for Duke to push across that one extra goal that would have forced overtime.