Blue Devils Fall To Undefeated Northwestern, 16-11

Sunday, April 10

Evanston, Ill.

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Duke University

Northwestern

Blue Devils Fall To Undefeated Northwestern, 16-11

4/10/2005 1:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse

By: Duke Sports Information

April 10, 2005

Box Score

EVANSTON, Ill. - Despite a three-goal effort from Rachel Sanford, the Blue Devils fell to top-ranked Northwestern, 16-11, Sunday afternoon at the Thomas Athletic Complex. With the win, the Wildcats extend their undefeated season to an 11-0 mark, while Duke falls to 10-3 on the year.

The Blue Devils took the opening draw, and just 1:09 into the contest Leigh Jester converted a free-position shot to open the scoring. Even more shocking was the next draw, as Katie Chrest controlled it and quickly fed a breaking Kristen Waagbo. Only seven seconds went off the clock, and it was 2-0.

Before the Duke fans had even stopped cheering, it was 2-1. Off the draw, Northwestern got the ball to Aly Josephs, who beat her defender about 30 yards out and went in uncontested to cut the Blue Devil lead in half. A grand total of 10 seconds had elapsed.

The fans finally got to catch their breath, as more than three minutes went by before Northwestern tied it up on Lindsey Munday's free-position goal. Duke scored the game's next four goals in a span of 4:37, however, gaining the momentum. Chrest got the run started with an unassisted tally, followed by unassisted goals from Michelle Menser and Sanford just 23 seconds apart. Northwestern took a timeout, but three minutes later Katie Laschinger finished a free-position shot and the score was 6-2.

Laura Glassanos finished a feed from Lindsey Munday. Just 18 seconds later, the two reversed roles for another Wildcat goal, and then 1:11 after that Glassanos finished an individual effort. Just forty-nine more seconds would elapse before Josephs tied things up off a feed from Kristen Kjellman.

Kjellman then took control, finishing a feed from Munday to give Northwestern the 7-6 lead with 13:08 left in the half. She then fed Courtney Flynn for a goal, before scoring her second of the day unassisted. Aly Josephs ended the Wildcats' 8-0 run with another unassisted goal, and suddenly the score was 10-6, Wildcats.

Duke finally got back on the board when Sanford scored an unassisted goal with 5:23 to play in the first half, and things slowed down considerably the rest of the way before the break -- the last goal before then was unassisted and scored by Kjellman.

Down 11-7 entering the second half, Duke played with urgency -- as a result, only eight seconds elapsed before Waagbo finished a long feed from Stefanie Sparks, and then 2:03 later Sparks scored herself to make the score 11-9.

Northwestern weathered the storm, however, as Munday finished a feed from Kjellman just 27 seconds after Sparks' goal, and then Kjellman scored another unassisted goal 16 seconds after that. Sarah Albrecht ended a five-minute drought by both teams with a free-position goal, answered quickly by Duke's Sanford.

The game became more deliberate after that, as Duke's attempts to get closer were foiled by the Northwestern defense and Ashley Gersuk -- who had three of her four saves in the second half -- and Northwestern chose to be more judicious in its shooting the last 15 minutes of the game, as Duke goalie Megan Huether came up with eight of her 11 saves after halftime.

Duke returns to action Saturday with a noon tilt against Loyola in Koskinen Stadium. The Blue Devil men's team will follow with a 3:00 p.m. contest versus conference foe and third-ranked Virginia.