BLACKSBURG, Va. ?
The third-seeded Duke women's lacrosse team erased an early 4-0 deficit to take
a 5-4 halftime lead, and led by as many four goals in the second half, but couldn't
hang on as top-seeded Maryland downed the Blue Devils, 12-11, Sunday afternoon to
capture the 2009 ACC Championship at Virginia Tech's Thompson Field.
The Terrapins outscored Duke 8-6 in what turned out to be a
telling second half.
Maryland's victory defended their regular-season ACC crown,
as the team picked up its sixth ACC Championship and first since 2003. Duke is
now 1-4 all-time in the ACC finals, 1-3 in conference tournament
competition against Maryland, and 8-11 all-time against the Terps following a regular-season loss at Maryland Feb. 28.
Duke drops to 13-5 on the season, while Maryland remains unbeaten at 18-0.
The Duke foursome of Caroline Cryer, Carolyn Davis, Sarah Bullard,
and Kim Imbesi received All-Tournament honors for their play, leading the Blue
Devils to the finals with dominating wins over Boston College and North
Carolina in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.
“I'm really proud of our girls for showing a tremendous team
effort today and playing three outstanding opponents in four days,” said head
coach Kerstin Kimel. “I thought we handled this weekend wonderfully. Maryland is
a fantastic team, and in the end another draw control here, a finished shot
there, a better slide on defense, the little things made a difference at the
end of the game.”
“I couldn't be more proud of how tough we competed this entire
weekend and we look forward to finishing out our regular-season tough against
Dartmouth.”
Five different Duke players scored in the opening frame as
part of a 5-0 run, while the Blue Devils out-shot Maryland 15-12 in the half to
fight back and take the lead after going down 4-0.
Duke continued its run, which ultimately ended at 8-0, with
three more tallies in the first seven minutes of the second half to build the
8-4 lead with 23:42 on the clock. Two of those first three came from Bullard,
who finished with a team-high four goals. That was Maryland's largest margin of
deficit all season.
Maryland's Laura Merrifield ? who came into the game with 49
goals - picked up her second yellow card just 40 seconds into second half,
which took her out of play for the remainder of the game.
The Terrapins scored their first goal since 21:55 in the
first half when Karri Ellen Johnson took a pass in front of the cage to make it
8-5 in favor of Duke. That sparked a 4-0 Maryland run that re-tied the game at
eight with 13:19 left.
Duke took the lead back at 11:46 on a hard-fought goal for
Cryer, who dodged and re-dodged in front of the cage before finding the open
shot. But it would be tied again, this time at nine, on a goal for McFadden,
who scored all four of her goals in the second. She posted another goal to give
the Terps the 10-9 lead with 8:19 left. Another 4-0 Maryland run put them out
in front, 12-9, with just 2:51 on the clock.
But the Blue Devils wouldn't go quietly, as the Terps
committed a turnover in their offensive end and Duke took it the length of the
field for a Davis goal off an assist from Cryer at 2:08. The Blue Devils won
the ensuing draw but had a free position shot saved, giving UMD the ball back,
but would commit another turnover that led to a Bullard goal with under a
minute to go. Maryland won that draw, called timeout with 49 seconds left, and
played keep-away as the clock wound down. Duke was able to wrestle the ball
back as the clock neared 10 ticks, but it wasn't enough for a final shot as the
Terrapins kept the one-goal edge to earn the tournament win.
After going down 4-0 early, Duke didn't fire its first shot
in the game until the 19:25 mark with the Terps playing tough defense and
outshooting Duke 8-0 to that point, but the Blue Devils then maintained possession
for the better portion of the first half as they began to claw back.
The Blue Devils got their first one at 18:49, a goal for
Emma Hamm in the middle off a crisp pass from Davis to cut it to 4-1. Lindsay
Gilbride then made the most of her free position shot at 15:08 to cut the lead
in half, before Caroline Spearman took a pass in front from Cryer and sent it
past the keeper for the third Duke goal. Megan Del Monte knotted the equalizer for
the Blue Devils at 5:23 as she took the ball around the back of the cage and
tucked her shot into the corner past the keeper.
Maryland was held without another shot until the 3:12 mark
in the first half, when the Terrapins scored what would have been the go-ahead
goal but Merrifield was assessed a card on the play and the goal was called
off.
Duke then aimed for the last shot of the half but Bullard
was fouled and converted her free position goal with 20 seconds left, and the
Terps would not score again as the Blue Devils came all the way back to take
the 5-4 lead into halftime.
In the championship game, Bullard led the team with four
goals while Cryer and Davis had two each and Del Monte, Hamm, Gilbride, and
Spearman all added one. Cryer had three assists as she continues to pace the
team in that category.
McFadden led Maryland with four goals, while Brittany Dipper
made 10 saves.
Duke won one more draw, 13-12, and ground balls were even at
10 each. Imbesi made six saves in the game, finishing a strong tournament with 26
total stops.
In the three tournament games, Gilbride led the Blue Devils
with eight goals, while Davis had seven, Bullard six, and Cryer five.
Duke wraps up regular-season play when it hosts No. 16 Dartmouth
next Sunday, May 3, at 12 p.m. at Koskinen Stadium on Senior Day.
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