Completed Event: Men's Lacrosse versus Georgetown on May 10, 2025 , Loss , 12, to, 16
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Men's Lacrosse
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Danowski Returns Thanks To Players
5/29/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
BALTIMORE (AP) - One of the roles of a coach is to provide his players with guidance they can use for the rest of their lives.
Duke lacrosse coach John Danowski certainly had that kind of influence on his band of players. At the end of an emotional season, however, it was Danowski who ended up thanking his team for making him a better man.
Johns Hopkins beat Duke 12-11 Monday to win its ninth NCAA lacrosse championship. But those who followed the season closely will most remember the accomplishment of a Duke squad that returned to form after having its 2006 season stolen away.
"This is the most phenomenal group of young men I have ever had the privilege to be near. The love, or respect or affection that I have for these kids, it will run through my core for the rest of my life," Danowski said. "To know what they went through, and to act and carry themselves the way they did all year long was unbelievable."
The Blue Devils fell 9-8 to Hopkins in the 2005 title game, but missed a chance to return to the Final Four in 2006 after an exotic dancer claimed she was attacked by three Duke players at a team party.
The allegations, which included rape and kidnapping charges, ultimately proved to be false. But the revelation came too late to save Duke's 2006 season or the job of coach Mike Pressler, who watched Monday's game among the championship-game record crowd of 48,443 fans while Danowski ran a team consisting of dozens of Pressler recruits.
The pleasure, Danowski said, was all his.
"It was unbelievable, the pressure that was on them, and how people treated them and how people talked about them and how people wrote about them and how the media portrayed them. And all they did was persevere every day," he said.
They did so in the championship game, too, rallying from a 10-4 halftime deficit to draw even at 11 on a goal by Max Quinzani with 4:37 remaining.
Hopkins attackman Kevin Huntley followed with his third goal of the game, with 3:25 to go. But the Blue Jays (13-4) couldn't celebrate until Quinzani's shot went wide of the goal as time expired.
"I thought it was going in. It must have been an inch-and-a-half wide of that bottom right corner," Quinzani said.
Said Danowski: "This isn't Hollywood. There are no storybook endings for these kids. And for that, I'm sad."
The Duke locker room was silent afterward. Several players cried; others refused to peel off their uniform for what would be the last time.
"Right now I think everyone in here is thinking, 'Wow, we just lost the national championship.' In a couple of weeks, maybe we'll say, 'Look what we accomplished,'" goaltender Dan Loftus said. "But we wanted a national championship. That's what we came here for."
It would have been a wonderful story. But Hopkins wrote its own ending.
"They went through a whole bunch of stuff, and I think it was amazing they could come back from that," said Jake Byrne, who scored four goals. "But I this game was more about lacrosse than anything else."
After the clock expired, the Blue Jays celebrated and the Blue Devils (17-3) gathered in a somber huddle in front of their bench.
"Last year just made us a tighter group," Quinzani said. "That's why so many of us are so emotional right now."
Duke came up short, but could take consolation in at least playing the game. One year earlier, their season ended long before Memorial Day, after a loss to Cornell on March 21.
"Coach reminded us what a great season it was and that we should be proud of ourselves," senior Ed Douglas said, "but certainly it hurts."
Ned Crotty scored three goals for the Blue Devils, who came into the game with a school-record 12-game winning streak - a run that included an 11-9 win over Hopkins on April 7.
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