Completed Event: Women's Lacrosse at #4 Florida on May 15, 2025 , Loss , 9, to, 11
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Final
Women's Lacrosse
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Blue Devil Weekly Feature: Up Close With Tricia Martin
4/11/2000 1:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
By John Roth
Blue Devil Weekly
Blue Devil Weekly
Tricia Martin knows why the Duke women's lacrosse team has developed into a national power in just five years of existence under coach Kerstin Kimel.
"The reason is that Kerstin is an amazing recruiter who manages to get great kids in every year," says Martin. "Each year we say our freshman class is really going to help out and make a profound impact from the start, and each year that class has." Martin was in one of those early freshman classes, as she was being recruited by Kimel while the coach's initial team was going through a 3-12 baptism.
The Huntington, N.Y., attacker is now a senior, but somehow none of those other great recruits to join the program the past three years has been able to dislodge her from the lineup. Martin has started all 61 matches the Blue Devils have played during her tenure, and she heads down the home stretch of her last season as the program's career leader in goals (152) and assists (73).
She was an important player for the 1999 team that advanced to the final
four, and she'll play just as vital of a role if this year's team is to repeat that feat. With a month to go before the NCAA tourney begins, the
Blue Devils have a 7-3 record and have been ranked in the national top five all year. They have four regular-season games remaining, sandwiched around the ACC Tournament Apr. 22-23 at Maryland.
"This year has been by far Tricia's best," says Kimel. "She's really worked hard to become a complete player. She's an integral part of our half-field press. She's probably one of the top people on our team in terms of caused turnovers, which is pretty remarkable for a low attacker. She's worked really hard over the last two years to improve and develop that part of her game. I think she's by far one of the best attackers in the country. "When you look at freshmen you see their potential. When she was a freshman, she had a lot of potential, and we'd look at her and think, 'Wow, we have a lot to work with.' Over the course of four years, she's worked hard to get better every single year, and that's not always easy for someone who's a good athlete and things have come easy for. She's had to work for it and has done a really good job."
Martin has scored 28 goals in 10 games this year and showed off some of her skills last Saturday in the first half of Duke's home game with ACC nemesis Virginia. She had a goal and an assist as Duke took a quick 5-0 lead on a team it had never beaten. After Virginia rallied to within 6-5 early in
the second half, Martin scored twice more barely two minutes apart to pad Duke's lead.
But then Virginia scored the last five goals of the game to win 10-8, leaving Kimel to question her team's courage.
"The last four games we've really played well," said the coach. "Today, I was hoping this would be a moment where we would step up in our program,
but unfortunately we didn't." It was the Blue Devils' eighth loss in as many tries to the Cavaliers, who handed Duke three of its five defeats last year, with a pair of one-goal
decisions in the ACC semifinals and NCAA semifinals.
They may have looked tentative at times against Virginia, but for the most part Martin thinks the Blue Devils usually played beyond their years in posting a 38-23 record during her career. "We've typically been a very young team each year, but we've been able to step up and play as a mature, experienced team. Each year there are two, three or four freshmen starting. And not just starting to fill spaces but playing major roles. That's absolutely huge," she says. "The team has big expectations of each other, good expectations, not just to win but to really play well in the process. Everyone wants to go back to the final four and play for the national championship."
Martin played soccer, basketball and volleyball as a youth, not turning to lacrosse until she was a seventh grader. One influence was her father, Daniel Martin, a former University of Buffalo football player who is now a court of claims judge. She says he encouraged her by pointing out the many opportunities available in the sport, especially to earn scholarship consideration at respected colleges. Another influence was her brother Dan, three years older, from whom she picked up many of the basic skills when the two played around the cage in their backyard.
She developed her game in high school and earned All-America honors her senior year, when she visited Princeton, Dartmouth, Virginia and recent NCAA champ Maryland on recruiting trips. Brother Dan helped her decide on Duke.
"He played for Georgetown and took a chance on a program that wasn't really established. That influenced me a lot. Instead of going for a big name, he went for a good coach," she says.
"Kerstin is a great recruiter and she would tell us things, and I didn't
come here because I thought she was lying. She had expectations herself for the team. She told us, 'We're not that great right now, but this is what we want to do.' And I knew she was dedicated to doing it, and the kids she recruited were also dedicated to doing it, which made for a good combination."
Martin, a history major who plans to teach elementary school and possibly coach lacrosse, has been the team MVP, an All-ACC selection and an All-America pick in each of the last two years. She was preseason All-America this year and has been on the U.S. Development squad for two years - several distinguished honors from a very young program. Had she picked Virginia, she might have been enough to push the Cavaliers past Maryland in last year's NCAA championship game. Had she picked the Terps, she might have played on multiple NCAA championship teams. But she hasn't once second-guessed her decision to pick Duke and help put it on the national lacrosse map.
"The people I've met and the experiences I've had far outweigh having a ring on my finger," she says. And for someone who's taken over 300 shots on the field, Tricia Martin won't be leaving Duke until she takes one more shot at a ring as well.
Players Mentioned
A
/ Women's LacrosseKerstin Kimel James Madison Postgame Press Conference 5-9
Friday, May 09
Kerstin Kimel Media Availability 5-7
Wednesday, May 07
Kerry Nease Media Availability 5-7
Wednesday, May 07
Madison Beale Media Availability 5-7
Wednesday, May 07
