Cryer And Davis Direct Duke To 20-10 Victory At Notre Dame

Thursday, April 5

Notre Dame, Ind.

4 p.m.

Duke University

Notre Dame

Cryer And Davis Direct Duke To 20-10 Victory At Notre Dame

4/5/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse

By: Duke Sports Information

NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- No. 4 Duke (10-1, 2-1 ACC) began their two-game midwest road trip with success on Thursday afternoon as they defeated No. 10 Notre Dame (9-3, 2-1 Big East), 20-10. The Blue Devils were led by junior attacker Caroline Cryer with six goals and one assist and sophomore midfielder Carolyn Davis with five goals and one assist. Senior attacker Kristen Waagbo also added three goals and two assists for Duke. The game was played indoors at Notre Dame's Loftus Center due to below-freezing temperatures and snow flurries.

The Blue Devils would score :46 seconds into the game when Cryer scored her 36th goal of the season, but then allowed three straight goals to go down 3-1 with 22:22 left in the game.

From that point on the first half and the game would belong to Duke, as they rattled off nine consecutive goals and took an 11-4 lead at halftime. They were led by Cryer's three goals and three draw controls as well as three goals from Davis and two goals and two assists Waagbo. The defense also shut out Notre Dame for a stretch of 21 minutes in the first half.

“We won several draws in a row and we executed on the fast break,” said Davis after the game when asked about what changed after going down 3-1 early in the game. “We were also able to cause some turnovers-- I think our defense was ?out to lunch' in the beginning of the game--- and then we got on our game plan and pushed it for the rest of the half.”

Duke would start the second half as it had the first: with a quick goal, this time only :29 seconds into the period by Waagbo on a pass from freshman midfielder Lindsay Gilbride. This time the Blue Devils would not allow the Irish to go on a run and would in fact score the first three goals of the half to take a 14-4 lead. Gilbride would add another strong performance to her first-year resume with this game, notching one goal and two assists.

The teams traded the next four goals to keep the status quo with a 10-goal Duke lead, 16-6. After that, the Irish went on a run midway through the second half, scoring three straight goals to cut the deficit to 16-9.

Cryer ended that run when she scored with 9:08 remaining on a pass from Davis, and Cryer, Davis and Waagbo scored the game's subsequent three goals to dash any hopes of a magical Irish comeback. Notre Dame tallied one more with just over two minutes remaining to produce the final score of 20-10. Sophomore midfielder Jillian Byers was the only player for the Fighting Irish to really get into a groove in the game, as she scored four of the team's goals.

In addition to her six goals and one assist, Cryer added seven draw controls for the second game in a row. That helped Duke dominate on the draw, 20-12 for the game. Cryer leads the team in draw controls with 39 and in goals with 41 through 11 games, averaging 3.73 per game. She was named Player of the Week on Tuesday by womenslacrosse.com for her four-goal, two-assist and seven-draw control effort in Duke's 19-18 sudden-death, double-overtime victory over then No. 4 Virginia on March 31.

Waagbo set the all-time Duke assists record on Feb. 18 against Stanford and now has 95 career assists after tallying 23 in 11 games. Waagbo is within range of several other records this season as well. Her own Duke record of 32 assists in one season (2006) is likely to fall at the pace she is on. Waagbo currently has 142 career goals which are good for fourth place behind former Duke player Kate Kaiser with 154. Katie Chrest holds the school record with 216. Waagbo's 231 points are second on the all-time Duke list, with Chrest in first with 287. She was named the Player of the Week by both womenslax.com and Inside Lacrosse on Monday for her six goals (including the game-tying score with :20 seconds left in regulation) and two assists (including the dish for the game-winner to senior midfielder Rachel Sanford with :13 seconds left in the second overtime).

Duke will complete their midwest road trip on Saturday when they take on No. 1 Northwestern at 2 p.m. ET, in Evanston, Ill., at the Leonard B. Thomas Athletic Complex.

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