Smesko, Harney Power Duke Past Navy, 18-9

Friday, February 12

Annapolis, Md.

4:00 PM

Duke University

Navy

Second Half Play Pushes Duke Past Columbia, 11-7

Smesko, Harney Power Duke Past Navy, 18-9

2/12/2016 8:00:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

Season Statistics Box Score

By: Duke Sports Information

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Senior Kelci Smesko and sophomore Kyra Harney combined for 10 tallies and freshman Olivia Jenner helped Duke dominate the draw in an 18-9 victory over Navy Friday. The fifth-ranked Blue Devils collected their first road victory of the season in chilly temperatures at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

Smesko finished with career highs in goals (6) and points (9), with the six goals marking the most by a Blue Devil in a game since 2015 graduate Kerrin Maurer notched six against Elon Feb. 7, 2014. Harney contributed a career-best four-goal output and Jenner, an Annapolis native, won 13 of the 29 total draws for the contest.

“Liv Jenner is very talented at the draw and she's still learning a lot,” said head coach Kerstin Kimel. “She's working really hard to get better and better every game. This group is a work in progress every game.”

Led by Jenner, the Blue Devils found early success at the draw, propelling the squad to a 4-1 start behind two goals each from Harney and Smesko. Smesko, who missed all of last season due to injury, secured her first hat trick of the season a short while later to push Duke's lead to three at 5-2.

Jenner totaled eight draw controls in the first 15 minutes of play and added a goal from the eight-meter mark. After Navy's Morgan Young notched her second of the contest, senior goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea and the Blue Devil defense kept the Mids off the board for over 12 minutes, with Duryea racking up six saves in that time.

Sarah Childress of Navy broke through for a score with just 16 seconds remaining, trimming the margin back down to three, but sophomore Maddie Crutchfield countered with a free position goal just before time expired to bring it to 9-5 at the intermission.

The Mids strung together consecutive markers early in the second half before Smesko fired her fifth, converting on a man-up opportunity, and assisted on a Stuart Humphrey score. Duke would get its largest lead of the game midway through the period when sophomore midfielder Jackie Perry recorded her first goal of the season.

Harney stuck a shot from the eight-meter with six minutes remaining for her career-best fourth of the contest and the Blue Devils and Smesko added a final tally inside the two-minute mark to close out the win.

“Navy kept changing things up on us defensively, so I thought our kids really adapted well to that as the game went on,” Kimel said. “We scored in different ways too … We're very happy that we were able to score well.”

Coming off of a career-best 16 save performance against No. 5 Northwestern, Duryea notched nine saves against 19 Navy shots while Ingrid Boyum of the Mids had six stops.

Duke went 7-of-8 on free position attempts for the contest and totaled 30 shots to Navy's 19.

The Blue Devils head west next week, traveling to Costa Mesa, Calif., to face Southern California in the US Lacrosse Orange County Winter Invitational Saturday, Feb. 20 at 10 p.m. ET.

--- NOTES ---

- Freshman Olivia Jenner's 13 draw controls marked a season high, as did Duke's 23 draws overall.

- With the nine-point performance, senior Kelci Smesko became the 24th player in program history to reach 100 points for her career.

#GoDuke