Sportswrap is your one-stop shop for everything Duke athletics, where we’ll recap how each of Duke’s sports currently in competition performed over the last week and give a brief look ahead. Here’s our recap for the week of Feb. 7-Feb. 13.
Men’s basketball
In a week full of highs and lows, No. 7 Duke got off to a tough start Monday night at home against Virginia, falling 69-68 after Reece Beekman’s timely triple gave the Cavaliers the lead for good in the final seconds. The Blue Devils (21-4, 11-3 in the ACC) recovered nicely, though, earning a pair of comfortable road wins—complete with star performances from freshmen Trevor Keels and Paolo Banchero—against Clemson and Boston College later in the week. With just six games left in conference play and the Blue Devils tied atop the ACC standings with Notre Dame, Tuesday’s bout against Wake Forest in Durham takes on added significance. -Jonathan Levitan
Women’s basketball
It was a tough week for Duke, as the Blue Devils dropped a heartbreaker at home to Florida State 59-56 and another to No. 5 N.C. State 77-62 just three days later. Despite the losses, Lexi Gordon, Shayeann Day-Wilson and Miela Goodchild have maintained their remarkable scoring form, but their team’s preseason ambitions of finishing in the top few of the ACC seem almost impossible now. The focus for Duke (15-9, 6-8) turns to NCAA tournament qualification, a gauntlet that begins Thursday with a date at bottom-feeding Virginia in Charlottesville, Va. -Andrew Long
Women’s lacrosse
No. 8 Duke kicked off its season with a pair of dominating victories. In their home-opener on Friday, the Blue Devils (2-0) glided past Gardner-Webb 22-3, with the win highlighted by the offensive performances of graduate student Catriona Barry and sophomore Katie DeSimone. Sunday they made the short drive up to Elon, where DeSimone turned in another career day with seven goals and senior Maddie Jenner couldn’t be stopped on the draw, setting a new career-high with 19 draw controls and guiding Duke to a 25-5 win. Up next for the Blue Devils is a pair of weekend road games, the first of which comes Friday against William & Mary. -Jonathan Browning
Men’s lacrosse
The No. 3 Blue Devils started their weekend off with a resounding 17-7 win against Manhattan Friday, led by four goals from junior Dyson Williams. However, just two days later, Duke (3-1) was upset by Jacksonville, falling 14-12 after being generously outscored through the middle section of the game. While the Blue Devils surged down the stretch, highlighted by five goals in the fourth quarter and a fourth-consecutive hat trick from Williams, they couldn’t complete the comeback and finished their Sunday matinee with their first loss of the season. -Sasha Richie
Softball
The No. 15 Blue Devils opened their season as well as could’ve been asked for, exploding for 15 runs in a mercy-rule first win, then blanking No. 2 Oklahoma State for their third February top-five win in as many years. Duke (4-1) was walked-off by No. 21 Arizona State after a late comeback, but battled through 4.5 hours of sleep to end the tournament on a win. The Blue Devils go to Gainesville, Fla., to face Villanova, No. 6 Florida, and Florida A&M next weekend. -Em Adler
Track and field
Depth was the buzzword of the weekend, as the Blue Devils racked up 14 top-five finishes across three events. Freshman Mike Herzog notched his first collegiate victory in the men’s triple jump at the Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational, while four athletes—Isabel Wakefield, Beau Allen, Halle Bieber and Brianna Smith—came in second in the women’s 60mH final, men’s high jump, women’s 200m final and women’s high jump, respectively. Plus, the Tyson Invitational featured a fifth-place finish for the vaunted women’s 4x400m relay unit, and distance stalwart Michaela Reinhart came in second in the women’s 5000m run in Friday’s Indoor Music City Challenge. Next for Duke are this weekend’s DMR Invitational and Virginia Tech Challenge. -Max Rego
Men’s tennis
Duke continued its streaky play this week as it easily handled VCU Friday before losing to No. 10 Kentucky Sunday. It took an extremely strong performance on the singles side to beat the Rams, as the Blue Devils (4-3) lost the doubles point before winning four singles matches to take the overall victory 4-2. Unfortunately, the team could not carry that momentum into its Sunday match against Kentucky, falling to the Wildcats 4-2. Duke was again unable to take home the doubles point, and this time it couldn’t make up for it in the singles matches that followed. The Blue Devils will have a week to regroup before heading north for a Saturday matchup with Illinois. -Robert Miron
Fencing
The Blue Devils dominated this weekend as they hosted their sole at-home meet in Durham before ACC championships commence later this month. The No. 6 men went undefeated in their matches, with a massive 18-9 victory against No. 3 Penn State and wins against Johns Hopkins, Brandeis, Air Force and Boston College with respective scores of 22-5, 17-10, 18-9 and 19-8. The No. 12 women were also victorious in their competitions, notching wins against No. 9 Temple, Air Force, Boston College and Brandeis with respective scores of 15-12, 23-4, 25-2 and 26-1. The women’s team’s lone loss was a 15-12 defeat to No. 7 Penn State. -Ana Young
Wrestling
The Blue Devils saw the mats twice this week, beginning with an 18-16 win against Gardner-Webb Wednesday to end their four-match losing spell before a 30-9 defeat Saturday against Virginia. In its first match against the Runnin’ Bulldogs, Duke (7-9, 0-4) had five wrestlers beat their opponents—Josh Finesilver and Wade Unger represented the lightweight side and Matt Finesilver, Kaden Russell and Jonah Niesenbaum held firm as the heavyweights. When Duke hosted Virginia several days later, only the Finesilver brothers managed to clinch victories, accounting for all of the team’s nine points. -Young
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