Duke women's lacrosse falters late against No. 11 Syracuse, remains winless in ACC play

For the second straight game, the Blue Devils had to search for some magic inside the last minute.

This time, though, there was none left in the bank for Duke with the game clock winding down, as attack Kyra Harney’s pass sailed high with 11 seconds left to give the Orange the ball back.

With the turnover, No. 11 Syracuse eked out a 10-9 nail-biting victory against Duke Sunday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium in a physical affair. Senior attack Devon Parker provided the game-winning tally with just more than five minutes left to give the Orange a 10-8 lead, and then they held on after surrendering senior midfielder Stuart Humphrey’s second goal of the game with 1:29 left to leave the Blue Devils wondering what could have been after a fifth straight ACC loss.

Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel’s team had a chance to build momentum after upending No. 16 Elon with a late game-winner Wednesday, but squandered late opportunities yet again.

“It’s a set that we were trying to run that we have to run against a zone [defense], where there’s a couple of different looks that you can aim for, and unfortunately, we didn’t run it,” Kimel said.

With the strategy failing and the crowd becoming anxious, the Blue Devils (6-6, 0-5 in the ACC) turned to their top goal scorer—All-American midfielder Maddie Crutchfield, who was the hero in the 10-9 victory against Elon—to try to make something out of nothing. But as she drove to the net, two Orange defenders converged on her and forced a pass to Harney. The junior was nowhere close to scoring territory with less than 20 seconds left on the shot clock.

As a Duke attacker cut right in front of the goal, Harney tried to force a pass into a tight window, and it sailed to Syracuse defender Kelsey Youmell, who ran out the clock.

“[Harney’s pass] would have been a better look with that much time left and when we’re in those last 15-20 seconds, we also have other set looks that we can run and we ran them at half-speed and just did not execute them well,” Kimel said. “At that point, you just need to go to goal to get fouled and try to draw a foul and get put on the 8-meter.”

Both teams got off to a slow start in the opening period, with Syracuse drawing first blood on a Natalie Wallon tally just less than 10 minutes into the contest—the Orange’s first shot of the game. Soon after Wallon’s goal, though, the Blue Devils responded right back on a highlight-reel effort by graduate student Jessie Ambrose. After receiving a feed from Crutchfield while streaking in front of the eight-meter marker, Ambrose flipped the ball behind her back with a defender on her back to beat freshman goalkeeper Asa Goldstock.

The Orange went to the locker rooms after the first half leading 6-4, as they took advantage of Duke’s miscues during man-up opportunities. Surprisingly, Syracuse actually outscored the Blue Devils 3-0 despite having a player sitting out, as Duke’s offensive struggles continued with a slew of turnovers that led to costly penalties deep in its own zone.

Once Cadoux hit her stride, though, Kimel’s squad was able to keep answering almost every Orange tally in the second half, drawing the score even at seven apiece before an Alie Jimerson tally with 17:05 remaining gave Syracuse the lead for good.

Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, their offense could not convert on enough opportunities for them to secure their first conference victory of the season. They will look to bounce back next week at No. 18 Boston College with only two conference games left and their NCAA tournament hopes hanging in the balance.

“We really stressed coming into this game what a huge opportunity for us this was,” Kimel said. “I thought we prepared really well for Syracuse. It just didn’t end up showing on the scoreboard, which is a shame.”