Duke met the Greyhounds in Baltimore more than two months ago for a marquee top-10 matchup, but the Blue Devils are expecting a new level of intensity for the teams' NCAA tournament opener.
Duke will open the NCAA tournament on the road for the first time since head coach John Danowski took over in 2007 Saturday against seventh-seeded Loyola Saturday at noon at the Ridley Athletic Complex. When the teams met in early March, the then-No. 7 Blue Devils rolled to a 15-6 win led by an eight-point outing from ACC Offensive Player of the Year Myles Jones.
But against a team that has won eight straight games and boasts one of the best attackmen in the country—freshman Pat Spencer, who is tied for fourth in the country with 4.7 points per game—Duke is prepared for a battle.
“It’s certainly not going to be easy,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “This has got a one-goal game written all over it either way.”
After taking down Boston University 15-8 Sunday, the Blue Devils appeared poised to earn their 10th consecutive bid to the NCAA tournament, but the plane ride back to Durham was an anxious one. Duke (11-7) was the final team announced during Sunday's selection show, and although the Blue Devils have wins against four of the eight seeded teams, they were not awarded a home game.
“Sometimes, you can take making the tournament for granted,” senior All-ACC midfielder Deemer Class said. “Until we saw our names on the draw, we weren’t totally sure. Of course, that’s a little different from the past when we knew we were getting in and it was, ‘What seed are we getting?’ But we’re just fortunate to have another opportunity to play.”
Following a first-round upset loss in overtime against Ohio State in the first round of the NCAA tournament last year, the Blue Devils got off to a slow start this season. Duke was upset at home by Richmond and Air Force, but gained momentum late, dominating sixth-seeded Marquette 16-1 three weeks ago and advancing to the ACC championship game with a comeback win against then-No. 4 Notre dame.
The Blue Devils' recent play gives them confidence they can get back to the Final Four—they made eight in a row from 2007 to 2014—despite their low seed.
“The seeds give us a little extra fire to play a little harder and prove to people that we’re one of those eight teams—having beaten four of the top eight,” Jones said. “We know we keep the game simple with [junior midfielder] Kyle Rowe winning faceoffs and our defense really improving and our goalie playing as well as we’ve ever seen him play—we’re excited for the way we can put a complete game together.”
The Blue Devil defense—after allowing 32 goals in two games against North Carolina and Syracuse—buckled down late in the season. In Duke’s last six games, it surrendered just 8.0 goals per contest.
An experienced defensive unit with seniors Jamie Ikeda and Chris Coady and junior Ethan Powley has prevented opponents from generating clean looks consistently, but junior goalkeeper Danny Fowler has also erased his teammates' mistakes more and more lately. Against the Terriers, the Wantagh, N.Y., native made seven saves, including a number of spectacular stops that kept the score tied despite a slow offensive start.
“[Fowler’s play has] been a huge boost. He and the whole defense have been on a huge run since the North Carolina game and having them make stops consistently has been huge for our team," Class said. "Combining that with Rowe at the faceoff X, it really helps us out.”
Rowe—who won 19-of-23 faceoffs against the Greyhounds in the regular season—will be critical against Loyola (12-3), which will look to Spencer to set the tone for an offense that averages 10.5 goals per game.
The attackman has scored 30 goals to go along with 41 assists in his rookie campaign. In his first matchup against Duke, the Davidsonville, Md., native notched a pair of tallies, and if the Blue Devils hope to bounce the Patriot League champions in the first round, they will likely have to limit Spencer's opportunities.
“[Spencer] might be the best in the country,” Danowski said. “Sometimes coaches will use hyperbole, but he is talented and skilled and we’re really impressed with him. He can play with either hand and he’s got great poise.”
Although Duke had an up-and-down regular season, the Blue Devils will look to peak at the right time like they have so often in the past and show they learned the right lessons from their past defeats.
“We struggled with [close games]. It wasn’t conceptual, it wasn’t schemes, we just weren’t making plays,” Danowski said. “We have some older guys and you’re searching for what’s the right answer, but the right answer is playing in those games and the right answer is losing. Sometimes, you have to lose and get knocked back a little bit."
Amrith Ramkumar contributed reporting.
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Twitter: @mpgladstone13
A junior from just outside Philadelphia, Mitchell is probably reminding you how the Eagles won the Super Bowl this year and that the Phillies are definitely on the rebound. Outside of The Chronicle, he majors in Economics, minors in Statistics and is working toward the PJMS certificate, in addition to playing trombone in the Duke University Marching Band. And if you're getting him a sandwich with beef and cheese outside the state of Pennsylvania, you best not call it a "Philly cheesesteak."