Blue Devils Fall to Maryland in ACC Championship

Sunday, April 24

Durham, N.C.

3:30 PM

Duke University

Maryland (ACC Championship)

Blue Devils Fall to Maryland in ACC Championship

4/24/2011 6:59:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C.-University of Maryland senior Grant Catalino scored three goals and sophomore Curtis Holmes won 18-of-24 faceoffs to lead the seventh-ranked Terps to the 2011 ACC Men's Lacrosse Championship with an 11-9 win over top-seeded Duke. Maryland, the No. 3 seed, outscored the sixth-ranked Blue Devils 5-3 in the second half to win the ACC title.

Representing Duke (11-5) on the ACC All-Tournament team were senior Zach Howell, junior CJ Costabile and sophomores David Lawson and Dan Wigrizer. The loss was the first for the Blue Devils since March 20, 2010, stopping a 17-game home win streak.

"I was really proud of our guys," head coach John Danowski said. "It's a very tough tournament. You play Virginia on Friday night in the second game and it's extremely physical and a very hard-fought game and you have to turn around about 36 hours later and play a very talented and skilled Maryland team. So I'm very proud of our guys for fighting and playing as hard as they played for as long as they played. I think this game will serve us really well down the line. I think we're going to grow and be a better team as a result of today."

Lawson and Howell led the Duke attack with three goals apiece and junior Robert Rotanz had two goals. Lawson finished the tournament with seven goals overall to lead all Blue Devil scorers. In goal, Wigrizer had 11 saves for his eight double-digit saves performance of the season.

"Simply in the game I think it was a matter of the faceoff game. I thought we played defense pretty well over long stretches, but too much defense. And offensively I thought we were pretty effective over a very short time. I'm very proud of my team and going forward this is going to help us."

Duke jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the first quarter behind goals from Howell, Lawson and Rotanz. Maryland rallied back in the second frame by netting four of the quarter's five goals to send the two teams into the locker room even at six.

The Terrapins completed the comeback and went ahead for the first time just 1:55 into the third quarter with a marker from Jake Bernhardt. The game was back-and-forth from that point as the teams traded leads over the next 10 minutes.

Howell and Dionne both threw in man-up goals to tie the contest and give Duke an 8-7 lead at the 7:34 mark of the third quarter. Maryland sophomore Kevin Cooper came back 1:32 later to make it an 8-8 score and senior Travis Reed put the Terrapins back in front for the final time at the 3:03 mark.

Leading by one heading into the final session, Maryland took its largest lead of the game at 10-8. Lawson made it a one-goal game again at 10:04, but a final goal from Catalino, tournament's most valuable player, iced the victory for the Terrapins.

Duke managed a couple offensive possession in the final six minutes, but the stifling Maryland defense kept the Blue Devils at bay. The Terrapins held Duke to fewer than 10 goals for just the fifth time this season and for just the second time since the regular season meeting between the two teams on March 5.

Maryland held a 37-34 advantage in shots and picked up 29 ground balls to Duke's 27. Both squads registered a pair of man-up goals. Niko Amato had nine saves for the Terrapins between the pipes.

Notes

Duke falls to 5-5 in ACC Tournament games against Maryland ... The Blue Devils are now 6-6 in championship games and 1-2 against Maryland in those contests ... Duke is 7-3 as the top seed in the ACC Tournament and is now 5-2 in tournament games played in Durham, N.C. ... The title game loss is the first for Duke head coach John Danowski after he won the title in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and lost in the semifinal in 2010 ... The Duke senior class is 5-2 in the ACC postseason and owns two ACC titles.

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