Defense Shines in 12-4 Win at Georgetown

Wednesday, March 11

Washington, D.C.

3:00 PM

Duke University

Georgetown

Defense Shines in 12-4 Win at Georgetown

3/11/2015 5:29:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

By: Duke Sports Information

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Blue Devil defense limited Georgetown to just four goals on 20 shot attempts in a 12-4 non-conference victory Wednesday at the Hoyas' Multi-Sport Field. Offensively, Duke registered assists of 10 of the 12 scores and featured a balanced attack to help the team improve to 8-0 for the season.

“Our team executed our defensive game plan really well,” said head coach Kerstin Kimel. “We limited their main attackers really well. Kelsey Duryea was solid in the cage, and I thought our kids did a great job of coming up with second chance balls all around, which was fantastic.”

Senior Brigid Smith recorded a game-high four goals and freshman Kyra Harney also posted a hat trick with three while senior Kerrin Maurer had two goals to go with three assists. In addition, Maurer tallied two of the Blue Devils' eight caused turnovers on the day.

The Hoyas won two of the first three draws of the contest but it was Duke that jumped out to a 2-0 lead behind goals from Maurer and Chelsea Landon. Junior goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea posted a pair of early saves before Hannah Seibel put Georgetown on the board five minutes in.

Smith and Harney strung together back-to-back scores to give the Blue Devils a 4-1 cushion midway through the period. Lauren Schwalje responded for the Hoyas, but a caused turnover by sophomore Devon Russell set up a Smith goal in transition. Junior Emma Lazaroff provided the assist to extend the lead to 5-2.

Harney added two more tallies inside the final six minutes to make it 7-2 in Duke's favor at the intermission. The Blue Devils outshot Georgetown 17-7 in the opening half and held a 7-3 advantage at the draw.

Smith secured a hat trick, her third of the season, less than four minutes into the second half. Caroline Tarzian ended Georgetown's scoring drought a short while later to pull the Hoyas within five. However a turnover by the home squad led to a Taylor Trimble score and Harney passed to Smith off the eight-meter to convert on a man-up opportunity.

“Our team is really versatile this year and we have a lot of different people creating opportunities and finishing on them,” Smith said. “Defense was definitely a momentum builder for us today. They played really solid and gave us a lot of opportunities to have the ball down on attack by shutting down Georgetown's offense.”

Sophomore Stuart Humphrey's first career goal pushed it to 11-3 with 14:27 remaining. Georgetown's Tarzian converted on a free position opportunity to snap the four-goal Duke run and close the contest.

“I liked that we had a lot of different people scoring,” Kimel said. “We could have afforded to be a lot more disciplined in the second half. I thought we got sloppy in the last 15 minutes, and that's something that we have to rectify on our offensive end moving forward into our next stretch of games.”

Duke totaled 29 shots to 20 by the Hoyas and held a 10-8 advantage at the draw, with seniors Chelsea Landon and Erin Tenneson collecting two draw controls each. The Blue Devils also had the edge in ground balls for the contest, 18-15.

Duryea finished with 10 saves in the net and added four ground balls and one caused turnover. Georgetown goalkeeper Maddy Fisher posted nine saves in the loss.

Fourth-ranked Duke resumes ACC action Saturday, March 14 in a 12 p.m. contest at No. 12 Louisville.

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