Monday was a day of firsts for Duke students. First day of school, first day of college for others, and for two national champions, it was their first time taking the mound.
Just weeks after winning their second consecutive national title and third in the past five years, the Blue Devils are trying to stay focused and disciplined in pursuit of the rare three-peat.
Senior Taylor Trimble and former Blue Devil Sarah Bullard both made it past the first weekend of grueling trials to be named to the United States national team,
On a day when the nation's second-ranked offense was largely contained and occasionally disrupted, Duke was able to find another way to get the job done.
The Blue Devils completed their quest for back-to-back national titles behind the clutch play of Player of the Game senior Jordan Wolf, defeating Notre Dame 11-9 Monday.
To close the deal on back-to-back national championships, the Blue Devils will have to defeat a Notre Dame team playing its best lacrosse of the season.
Kyle Keenan tallied five points in his first career start and Kyle Turri made four key saves down the stretch to propel Duke into Monday's national title game.
A balanced offensive attack that included three Blue Devil hat tricks sets up a chance at a repeat Monday afternoon.
The Blue Devils and their high-powered offense will take on a stingy Pioneer defense in hopes to return to the title game for the second year in a row.
At this point, Duke may want to start booking its hotel rooms for the Final Four at the beginning of the season to save some money.
Sunday's matchup against Johns Hopkins is all that stands between the Blue Devils and their eighth consecutive trip to NCAA semifinal.
The Blue Devils could not keep up with the Terrapins' high-powered offense Saturday, leading to their exit from the NCAA Championship.
The last unseeded team remaining in the NCAA Championship, the Blue Devils will look to pull the major upset Saturday when they take on top-seeded Maryland.
On a day where the majority of Maddy Morrissey's classmates were back in Durham for the graduation ceremony, the senior midfielder still managed to make Sunday a day to remember.
Led by sophomore midfielder Myles Jones, the Blue Devils used their size and offensive firepower to ground Air Force in the opening round of the NCAA Championship Sunday.
Duke will begin its postseason run with hopes of repeating the success of last year's national championship run.
Entering the NCAA Championship, Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel spoke of treating the postseason as a clean slate. If that was the case, then the Blue Devils made a good first impression Friday.
Duke made it to the postseason for the 17th straight season. Now that they're in, they will have to put the last half of the season behind them and hope history repeats itself.
In their final regular season game as Blue Devils, Jordan Wolf and Josh Dionne made sure the team could shake off the rust after final exams and earn a bounce-back road win.
Led by newly crowned ACC Offensive Player of the Year Jordan Wolf, the Blue Devils will look to get back to their winning ways as they take on Boston University Sunday.
