FINAL FOUR BOUND! Blue Devils Defeat North Carolina, 15-7, To Advance To Final Four Against Virginia

Sunday, May 15

Durham, N.C.

TBA

Duke University

North Carolina

FINAL FOUR BOUND! Blue Devils Defeat North Carolina, 15-7, To Advance To Final Four Against Virginia

5/15/2005 1:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse

By: Duke Sports Information

May 15, 2005

Box Score

DURHAM, N.C. - The Blue Devils advance to the final four of the NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championships for just the second time in program history after rolling over North Carolina, 15-7, Sunday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium. Second-seeded Duke (17-3) will face Virginia, who defeated Boston University by a score of 13-9 in Charlottesville, Va., in the national semifinal game on Friday, May 20 at approximately 8:15 p.m.

Duke's Rachel Sanford led all goal scorers with four goals and Katie Chrest notched seven points on three goals and four assists to power the Duke attack that outshot the Tar Heels by a 30-23 margin. Blue Devil goalie Megan Huether was stunning between the pipes, tallying 11 saves on 23 shots, while her Carolina counterpart Kristen Hordy stopped eight shots.

The Blue Devils jumped out to the early lead as Katie Laschinger converted on a pass from Chrest and Leigh Jester added another one minute later to put Duke up 2-0 at the 28:36 mark. Jess Allen scored her first of two goals for North Carolina (14-6), but the Devils went on a 6-0 run to blow the game open to an 8-1 score. Sanford and Kristen Waagbo each netted two in that spread, while Jester and Chrest found the back of the net once for the Blue Devils to account for the seven-goal lead with 11:10 to play in the first half. North Carolina's Meg Freshwater and Christina Juras scored to bring the game within five, but Jessica Adam and Chrest stretched the lead back to seven in the last minute and a half to send the teams in halftime with a 10-3 score.

Duke gave up four free position goals to North Carolina in the second half, including three in the opening five minutes of action. Juras, Allen and leading scorer Allison Higgins each converted on the open shot after being fouled within the arc to bring the game within reach for the Heels. With the score 10-6 and the Tar Heels within the closest margin since early in the first half, Sanford and Jester worked the score back up with back-to-back goals to put Duke on top 12-6 with 10:47 to play. Katie Brooks scored for the Tar Heels on the fourth free position shot of the half, but any hope of a comeback was thwarted by Sanford with her fourth goal of the day, followed by a solo tally from Chrest and a Waagbo goal off a pass from Jessica Adam to account for the final 15-7 margin of victory.

Friday's meeting against Virginia will be the third one for the two teams this season. Duke has defeated Virginia twice already in the 2005 campaign, once in the regular season and again in the ACC Championship game. In Duke's only other final four appearance in 1999, the Cavaliers defeated the Blue Devils, 9-8, in the semifinal round.

NOTES
 Final four information can be found from Navy's Web Site.
 Duke advances to the final four for the second time in school history
 For the first time in program history, the Blue Devils won two games in the NCAA Tourney
 The Blue Devils have now won five of the last six games against the Tar Heels, including two this season as they eliminated North Carolina from both ACC and NCAA Championship contention.
 Earlier in the day, seniors Kristy Dirks, Lane Fogarty, Laschinger, Caline McHenry and Sparks participated in the university's graduation exercises.