No. 8 Duke Powers Through to Defeat No. 16 Louisville, 12-10

Thursday, April 8

Louisville, Ky.

7:00 PM

Duke University

7-5, 3-5

Louisville

5-7, 1-6

Duke

Louisville

No. 8 Duke Powers Through to Defeat No. 16 Louisville, 12-10

4/8/2021 9:45:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Despite Thursday night's contest in Kentucky being a physical one, the No. 8 Duke women's lacrosse team powered through to defeat No. 16 Louisville, 12-10, at Cardinal Stadium.

With the victory, the Blue Devils improve to 7-5 and 3-5 in conference action as the Cardinals drop to 5-7 and 1-6 in the ACC.

Goalkeeper Sophia LeRose spearheaded a tough Duke defense as she picked up a career-high 14 saves on 24 Louisville shots on goal. The junior from San Diego, Calif., only had one save in the first half before her dominant second-half showing.

Offensively, the Blue Devils were led by two who recorded hat tricks in Katie Cronin and Eva Greco. Maddie Jenner added two goals for her first multi-goal performance since March 19, while Olivia Carner, Catriona Barry, Katie DeSimone and Abby Landry rounded out Duke's offensive performance. Greco's two-goal outing tonight marks her first goal since 2019.

Duke got started quickly with a 2-0 lead just over two minutes into the contest. Barry connected on her eighth free-position goal of the season (28:56) before Jenner found the open space in front of the cage for her 14th score of the year (27:50).

Duke was then left without a shot for over eight minutes and without a goal for 17 as Louisville bounced back with five goals to take an early 5-2 lead with 17 minutes remaining in the first half. Greco found her first goal of the season at a crucial time for the Blue Devils at 11:10 before DeSimone squared up on the 8-meter line and finished to pull Duke within one with just over 10 minutes remaining.

The two squads were all tied up at 5-5 as Jenner drove to the cage at 7:26 on the clock and tossed it in for her second score of the contest. The Blue Devils regained the lead with six minutes left before intermission as Cronin tallied her 24th goal of the year. Greco notched her second goal of the game with a nice run around the cage for a sneaky dish inside to stretch Duke's lead to two (7-5) with 1:50 remaining. The Cardinals added one final goal before the half, leaving Duke with a one-goal advantage at the break.

After the half, Cronin tallied her seventh hat trick of the year courtesy of back-to-back goals 30 seconds apart to give Duke its largest lead of the game (9-6). Both teams were quiet offensively for eight minutes as they traded possessions. The Cardinals answered with two goals in less than two minutes to fight their way back in (9-8) just before tying it up at 17:28 with their fifth free-position goal.

Down by one with 12:47 remaining, Catherine Cordrey found a wide open Greco a few feet in front of the cage for a hat trick to tie up the contest at 10-10. Carner and Landry tacked on two more goals (12-10) with eight minutes remaining. Playing a man down, Louisville set up a free-position attempt but LeRose came up big with her 10th save of the contest to help Duke kill off the two-minute penalty.

LeRose registered another save as the Blue Devils played man-down once again, preventing Louisville from tying the contest and giving Duke possession.

Down the stretch, LeRose stopped four straight 8-meter attempts to keep Louisville at an arms length to secure the victory.

The Blue Devils dominated the draw control (19-5) as Jenner led the way with nine while Barry contributed five. Defensively, Carner and Callie Humphrey grabbed three ground balls each while Cubby Biscardi collected two caused turnovers.

The Cardinals were led by Ally Hall with three goals and an assist. Rachel Florek saved nine shots in goal.

Duke will welcome Liberty on Tuesday, April 13 for a 5 p.m., contest in Koskinen Stadium to open up a three-game homestand to close the regular season.

For more information on Duke women's lacrosse, follow the Blue Devils on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching "DukeWLAX.

#GoDuke