No. 11 Duke Runs Past Liberty, 18-4

Tuesday, February 28

Durham, N.C.

4 PM

Duke University

4-1

Liberty

1-3

LIBERTY

Duke

Photo by: Nat LeDonne / Duke Athletics

No. 11 Duke Runs Past Liberty, 18-4

2/28/2023 7:50:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score Gallery

DURHAM – Junior Katie DeSimone tallied her 100th-career goal to help lead No. 11 Duke past Liberty, 18-4, in women's lacrosse action Tuesday evening at Koskinen Stadium.

DeSimone poured in six points off five goals and an assist and now owns 147 points for her career to rank her tied for 24th in program history. Her 104 goals are 22nd in Duke lore.

Senior goalie Shaye Fitzpatrick saw her third career start in the cage and was phenomenal between the pipes as she collected a career-high 15 saves and just four goals against for a .789 save percentage.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Blue Devils jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first quarter as DeSimone tallied an early hat trick with three of the four scores. Caroline DeBellis dished two assists and ended the contest with four, tying her career high.
Liberty got on the board at 11:35 in the second quarter and added two more scores to make it 6-3 in favor of the Blue Devils, but that was as close as it would get. Head coach Kerstin Kimel's squad tacked on four more goals to close out the half with a steady seven-goal lead (10-3).
The Flames notched their final score of the contest at 8:28 in the third quarter before it was all Duke the rest of the contest.
Nine different Blue Devils tallied a point in the final 20 minutes with four of the seven goals being assisted.

NOTABLES

Duke moves to 4-1 this season and 4-0 in non-conference games.
The win was Kimel's 336th-career victory and her 332nd at the helm of the Blue Devils.
Half of Duke's goals were assisted (18G, 9A), marking the fourth time this season Duke has done so.
Eva Greco tied her career high in goals this evening with three.
Midfielder Veronica Hineman filled up the stat sheet with a goal, an assist, three ground balls, a caused turnover and a draw control.
Maddie Jenner brought in 14 draw controls, bringing her career total to 662 as the NCAA Division I draw control leader.
Freshman Madison Beale tallied a career-high three ground balls to lead the team alongside Hineman.
Liberty was led by Mackenzie Lehman with two goals.

QUOTES

On Katie DeSimone's 100th-career goal and what she brings to the program: "Deso is just a super scrappy, tough kid. She steps up in big moments when we need a momentum shift. I'm really happy for her – it's quite an accomplishment to be a junior and already have your 100th goal." – Kerstin Kimel
On the defensive adjustments from Boston College: "I think the story of the game is Shaye. Shaye had 13 saves and that's pretty spectacular for her third-career start. We didn't help her enough at Boston College and it was very clear what we needed to do defensively to help her and we did that today." – Kerstin Kimel

UP NEXT

Duke will travel to Charlotte, N.C., for a neutral site matchup against No. 13 Notre Dame on Saturday.

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

#GoDuke