Duke Moves Past North Carolina 11-9 To Advance To ACC Championship

Friday, April 29

Baltimore, Md.

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Duke University

North Carolina

Duke Moves Past North Carolina 11-9 To Advance To ACC Championship

4/29/2005 1:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse

By: Duke Sports Information

April 29, 2005

Box Score

BALTIMORE, Md. - The Blue Devils advance to the championship game of the ACC Tournament for just the third time in school history after defeating North Carolina, 11-9, Friday afternoon at Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium. Katie Chrest and Leigh Jester led the Duke attack with a hat trick apiece, while Duke goalie Megan Huether was stunning between the pipes, making 12 saves, including 10 in the second half.

Duke (13-3) will look to win its first-ever conference crown against Virginia at approximately 1:00 p.m. Sunday in the championship game, televised on Fox Sports South and Comcast Sportsnet. The Cavaliers (13-3) beat Maryland, 15-11, in the first semifinal match-up. This will be the second consecutive year that the Blue Devils and Virginia have faced each other in the championship game.

Rachel Sanford opened scoring for the Blue Devils just under four minutes into the game with an unassisted goal before North Carolina's Stephanie Scurachio tied the ballgame at one-all with 21:58 to play. Jester and Scurachio traded goals over the span of a minute before Christina Juras netted one for the Tar Heels to give her team its lone lead of the contest. Chrest tied the game up at 3-3 and then assisted a goal by Caroline Cryer to send Duke up 4-3.

North Carolina tied it up a final time with a goal from Erica LaGrow, but the Blue Devils rattled off three straight tallies to close out the half with a 7-4 lead. Stefanie Sparks, Cryer and Chrest all scored during that stretch before closing out the final 6:38 of the opening stanza without a single goal.

The Tar Heels came out strong in the second half, scoring three of the first four goals of the period to situate themselves at 8-7 with 20:27 to play. Chrest and Carolina's Allison Higgins scored back-to-back goals to keep Duke's margin at one with 15:41 to play. Sanford converted on a free position shot and Jester scored on an unassisted goal to stretch the Blue Devils' lead to 11-8.

Despite a 19-4 shot advantage by the Tar Heels in the second half, the Blue Devil defense clamped down in the final minutes of action, allowing just one goal to Juras with just over seven minutes to play. Both teams remained scoreless down the stretch, despite a number of scoring opportunities for both sides.

The Blue Devils' record in the ACC Tournament improves to 3-8 with the win over North Carolina Friday. In Duke's previous two trips to the championship game, it fell to Maryland 15-12 in 2001 and to Virginia 17-7 in the 2004 season.