Duke Defeats Louisville, 12-11, to Advance to ACC Quarterfinal

Sunday, April 23

Louisville, KY

2 PM

Duke University

Louisville

Photo by: DANA GENTRY

Duke Defeats Louisville, 12-11, to Advance to ACC Quarterfinal

4/23/2023 5:45:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score Photo Gallery

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Ninth-seeded Duke tallied a 12-11 victory over eighth-seeded Louisville in the first round of the ACC Tournament Sunday afternoon at U of L Stadium.

With the victory, the Blue Devils advance to the quarterfinals and will face top-seeded Boston College Wednesday.

Maddie Jenner and Lexi Schmalz spearheaded Duke's offense with hat tricks while Caroline DeBellis dished two dimes in the win.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Duke outshot Louisville, 13-4, and put 11 shots on cage in the first quarter and quickly took a 3-0 lead as Schmalz opened the scoring with two early goals to pace the offense.
With a 4-2 lead after 15, eight combined goals between the two teams made up the second quarter.
DeSimone connected on a player-up opportunity at 6:55 in the second quarter to give Duke a two-goal lead (6-4) at the media. This was DeSimone's first goal since 8:07 in the first quarter against Louisville eight days ago.
Louisville tallied three unanswered to take its first lead of the game (7-6) with 2:46 in the second. Jenner and DeBellis teamed up with 1:33 left in the half to tie it up (7-7).
All tied up at 7-7 after 30 minutes, Louisville's Negai Nakazawa found the back of the cage for the third time of the afternoon to give the Cardinals a two-goal lead (9-7).
Three different Blue Devils scored less than two minutes apart to give Duke the lead back (10-9) with 7:30 left in the third. Louisville scored 55 seconds later for the fourth tie of the game (10-10).
Louisville regained the lead (11-10) before Carly Bernstein connected on her first free-position goal this spring, one second before the shot clock expired, for the fifth tie.
Louisville picked up its third yellow card at 6:45 in the fourth, meaning every yellow after that is non-releasable. The Cards picked up one additional.
Bernstein gave Duke the lead with just under four to play in regulation as DeBellis dished her career-high 21st assist this spring.
Louisville got a good look at the equalizer on a free-position attempt but freshman Madison Drebing was there to shut the door, just her second save in 28 minutes. Another Blue Devil foul set up Louisville's sixth free-position opportunity with 10 seconds remaining, but the shot hit the post to give Duke the victory.

NOTABLES

Duke improves to 8-9 this season.
Duke moves to 13-24 all-time in ACC Tournament games and 7-5 in the first round.
Head coach Kerstin Kimel captured her 340th career victory and the 336th at the helm of the Blue Devils.
The all-time series against Louisville moves to 9-2 in favor of Duke.
The contest featured five ties.
Schmalz registered her fifth hat trick of the season.
Jenner tallied her fifth hat trick of the season and the 14th of her career.
The Blue Devils are now 1-5 in one-goal games this season.
Duke is now 2-7 this spring when dishing five or fewer dimes.
Jenner collected seven draw controls today to bring her career total to 784 as the NCAA Division I career leader.
Cubby Biscardi and Maddie Johnston spearheaded the defense with three caused turnovers each while Veronica Hineman picked up four ground balls.
Kimel's squad outshot Louisville 41-21, won the ground ball game (21-16) and dominated at the draw circle (19-8). Duke was also 16-of-17 on clears.
Louisville's goalie Sara Addeche collected 16 saves while Duke combined for just three between Sophia LeRose and Drebing.
Louisville was led by Hannah Morris with five goals.