Duke Dominates North Carolina En Route To ACC Championship Game

Friday, April 24

Blacksburg, Va.

6:30 p.m.

Duke University

North Carolina (Semifinals)

Imbesi Sweeps National Player of the Week Awards

Duke Dominates North Carolina En Route To ACC Championship Game

4/24/2009 10:15:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

By: Duke Sports Information

BLACKSBURG, Va. ? The third-seeded Duke women's lacrosse team erased any memory of last Friday's two-goal regular-season loss to North Carolina, using outstanding defense and a controlled attack to down the second-seeded Tar Heels, 14-4, Friday night in the semifinals of the 2009 ACC Championships. The Blue Devils improved to 13-4 on the season and will move on to face the top-seeded and currently undefeated Maryland Terrapins on Sun., April 26, at 1 p.m. at Virginia Tech's Thompson Field.

The game will be televised live on FOX Sports Net (FSN South).

Ten goals is the most by which any Duke women's lacrosse team has beaten UNC, with the previous high an eight-goal margin in the 2005 NCAA Tournament. Tonight's win also snapped UNC's three-game winning streak over the Blue Devils, who improved to 12-10 all-time against the Tar Heels. UNC drops to 13-4 with the loss. The win also got back 1/2 of the Carlyle Cup point that Duke had lost to North Carolina last week, although UNC already clinched the victory in the yearlong multi-sport competition between the local rivals, which is sponsored by Carlyle & Co., of Greensboro, N.C.

Leading-scorer Carolyn Davis led the Blue Devils with four goals on the night, including three in the first nine minutes of play to get Duke off and running. Davis got Duke on the board first with an unassisted goal at 29:40, which she followed with a free position goal at 26:39 and another unassisted score at 21:26 for the early 3-0 lead.

“We kept the same mindset today [that we had last week against UNC], but we did a better job of executing our game plan, which was to bring a consistent Duke effort for 60 minutes," said Davis. “Last week we got off to a slow start, so to be able to get those quick goals really got us going. We had more of a fast-break tonight, so from there we were able to keep our lead.”

Caroline Cryer added two more after that as the Blue Devils posted a 5-0 run to start the game before North Carolina scored its first goal at 17:30, the first of two-straight Corey Donohue tallies to make it 5-2. But the Blue Devils scored four of the next five goals to close out the first half, leaving it 9-3 at the break. The defense was continually pressuring UNC into forced shots, while Kim Imbesi stopped 12 saves for the third time this season to keep Duke out in front.

Megan Del Monte found the scoring column with four minutes gone by in the second half, before Becky Lynch scored for the Tar Heels to make it 10-4 at the 19:26 mark. That snapped a 23-minutes drought for UNC, who only managed the one second-half goal and would not score again for the remaining 19 minutes. After that, Del Monte added two more to pick up her hat trick, as did Lindsay Gilbride, as the Blue Devils were able to keep Carolina down by double digits at the final whistle.

“I knew this team having just seen them a week ago, so I knew what kinds of shots I was going to be seeing, which is always an advantage,” said Imbesi, who made nine saves in the first half alone. “Some shots I got burned on last week I was able to anticipate tonight, and I knew if I kept making stops that our offense would go down and score for us. UNC was forcing some of their shots, which got me in position to make saves. Our defense did a great job, especially with Christina Germinario out [with an injury] and having to step up without that senior leadership, everyone did a great job back there.”

The Blue Devils committed a season-low four turnovers, and just one after halftime, while winning the draw, 14-6, and going 4-for-5 on free position shots. UNC won just one draw in the second half and took zero free position shots in that frame.

Only two UNC players scored goals. Del Monte and Davis each finished with five points to lead Duke.

“I'm really proud of our kids after they played a tough game yesterday and turned around and played again today,” said head coach Kerstin Kimel. “We played so hard and so tough tonight, and we're looking forward to a good day of work tomorrow and a great game Sunday.”

Duke had reached today's semifinal game with yesterday's 16-7 win over Boston College in the quarterfinals. In today's other semifinal game, the 17-0 Terrapins downed the three-time defending ACC champions Virginia with a 15-7 win earlier. A trio of Maryland players - Caitlyn McFadden, Laura Merrifield, and Brittany Jones - had hat tricks in the game, while Brittany Dipper made 12 saves in the net.

On Sunday, the Blue Devils will be looking for their second ACC Championship in program history, winning the title in 2005. Duke is 1-3 all-time in the finals.

The Terps will be going for their sixth conference tournament win, their first since 2003. This will mark the teams' second meeting in the finals, with Maryland earning a 15-12 victory over Duke in 2001 to take the championship. Duke is 1-2 in conference tournament competition against Maryland, most recently facing off in 2006 where the Blue Devils earned a convincing 19-9 win in the quarterfinals.

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