Final Four Bound! Duke Tops Johns Hopkins To Earn Berth In Philadelphia

Saturday, May 19

Durham, N.C.

1 p.m.

Duke University

Johns Hopkins (Second Round)

Cryer, Waagbo And Jester Named WomensLacrosse.com All-Americas

Final Four Bound! Duke Tops Johns Hopkins To Earn Berth In Philadelphia

5/19/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. --- The No. 2 seeded Duke Blue Devils played a solid defensive game and defeated the No. 6 seeded Johns Hopkins Blue Jays, 12-7, on Saturday afternoon in Koskinen Stadium. Duke will head to the Final Four for the third consecutive season and the fourth time overall.

Sophomore goalkeeper Kim Imbesi made seven saves and junior defender Aiyana Newton only allowed Hopkins' Tewaaraton Trophy finalist Mary Key to score two late-game goals on four shots. The Blue Devils held their opponent to 10 goals or less for the 12th time this season. It was the fifth time in the last seven games that Duke's opposition was unable to score more than 10 goals.

“I think it's that point of the season where you either get it done or you don't,” said Imbesi when asked about Duke's defensive efforts. “We've known all along as a defensive unit that we would have spurts of genius and then we'd have spurts of not-so-genius. We really worked on some things this week in practice and made a commitment to each other that this our time and we were going to get it done--- and we did it.”

Offensively for the Blue Devils, junior Caroline Cryer was once again the top goal-scorer with three on the day. The senior trio of attacker Kristen Waagbo, attacker Leigh Jester and midfielder Rachel Sanford combined for six goals and three assists.

The game started out much more slowly than the norm for the Blue Devils. Junior midfielder Allie Johnson hit paydirt 1:38 into the game, but 12 minutes in, the score was knotted 1-1. Duke then scored three goals in just over five minutes to take a 4-1 lead and caused Johns Hopkins to take a time-out. Sanford accounted for two of those three scores.

Hopkins rallied back with two consecutive goals, including one goal and one assist by junior midfielder Kirby Houck. That incited Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel to call time-out, and the results were almost immediate. The Devils won the ensuing draw control and proceeded to score the final four goals before halftime. Cryer tallied two scores and Waagbo added one goal and one dish in that span. Duke went into the locker room with an 8-3 lead and never looked back.

Duke would score two goals in the first minute of the half--- one by Jester and one by Cryer--- to take a 10-3 lead. The Blue Jays would trade goals with Devils in the next seven minutes to keep the status quo at a seven-goal differential.

The last 20 minutes of the game would see the Duke offense play keep-away from Johns Hopkins, and the Duke defense would hold the Jays to only three goals despite a furious attempt by them to get back in the game.

The Blue Devils dominated the draw, 15-6, for the game. Cryer notched three draw controls to bring her season total to 64. Duke also was a perfect 10 for 10 on clears, while Hopkins was only 11 for 18.

Key was unable to tally a point until 17:07 was left in the game. That came when a rare crease violation on Imbesi was called, giving Key a wide open one-on-one after a re-start with the goalkeeper. Key's second score came on a break-away with 8:13 remaining, when the issue of the contest was losing its doubt. She is the NCAA points-per-game leader this season and ended her career having scored a point in all 70 of her collegiate games.

“I studied up on her a lot this week,” said Newton when asked about her performance against Key after the game. “I felt very confident and ready for what she was going to do. She has some very strong tendencies that she goes to which are very obvious when she's setting them up. I knew when she was going to go to her right hand and to step up and take that away. I felt really ready for her.”

Duke improved their record to 16-3 on the season, while Johns Hopkins ends their year with a 12-8 mark.

The NCAA Tournament is now down to the Final Four, ironically which is made up of the top four seeds. No. 1 seed and two-time defending national champion Northwestern will take on No. 4 seed and Final Four host Pennsylvania in the first semifinal game on Friday night at 6 p.m. No. 2 seed Duke will play No. 3 seed Virginia on Friday night, 45 minutes after the conclusion of the first game. Both of these games will take place at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pa. The 2007 NCAA women's lacrosse championship game will be played on Sun., May 27, at 7 p.m., on CSTV.

“Being a senior, I want this so badly,” said Waagbo after the game when asked about the Final Four. “I'm really looking forward to ending my career with two more wins.”

DUKE NOTES

** Duke improves to 10-9 all-time and 10-3 at home in NCAA Tournament play.

** Duke's 16 wins this season are the third-most in school history, trailing only the 18 victories earned by the 2006 squad and the 17 wins by the 2005 team.

** The Blue Devils are 10-3 this season against ranked opponents. ** Duke owns a program-best 15-game home winning streak that dates back to April 7, 2006 ... the Devils finish their 2007 home slate with a 10-0 record.

** Duke is 51-10 over the past three seasons and 77-21 over the past five.

** Duke is 3-3 in second round games since the NCAA tournament expanded to 16 teams in 2000 ... the Blue Devils have now won their second round game three years in a row.

** Cryer's 67 goals this season are second on the all-time Duke list and are only three behind record-holder Katie Chrest's total of 70 in 2005 ... she is a Tewaaraton Trophy finalist.

** Waagbo is in third place on the career ACC assists list and now has 114 ... her 2.21 assists per game are tops in the ACC ... moved into a tie for second on the all-time Duke shots' list with 375.

** Jester now has 24 goals and seven assists in nine career NCAA tournament games.

** Duke's 15.53 goals-per-game clip is the highest in school history by almost a full goal.

** The Blue Devils are now 7-0 all-time against the Blue Jays after Saturday's victory.

** Saturday marked the seventh time this season that Duke has held its opponent to seven goals or less ... the Devils are 13-0 when they allow 11 goals or less.