Comeback Falls Short in 14-12 Loss to No. 17 Penn

Friday, March 1

Durham, N.C.

6 p.m.

Duke University

4-1

Penn

3-1

PENN

Duke University

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Comeback Falls Short in 14-12 Loss to No. 17 Penn

3/1/2024 9:35:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

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DURHAM – Duke senior midfielder Aidan Danenza scored a career-high four goals, but it wasn't enough as the top-ranked Blue Devils fell to No. 17 Penn in men's lacrosse action Friday night at Koskinen Stadium.

Duke (4-1) trailed by four with under five minutes to play and pulled within one in the final 90 seconds but couldn't complete the comeback.

The four goals marked the first career hat trick for Danenza while Josh Zawada finished his night with two goals and three assists. Penn's Ben Smith and Luke DiNola both had three goals and two assists to lead the charge on offense for the Quakers (3-1). In goal, Penn's Emmett Carroll was outstanding with 17 saves.

How it Happened

Duke was the first on the board at the 9:26 mark with an unassisted tally from Andrew McAdorey. Penn answered 26 seconds later to tie the game. The Blue Devils answered with two unanswered for a 3-1 lead with 5:45 to play in the first.
The back and forth continued as Penn scored six seconds later to spur a 6-2 run to take a 7-5 lead into halftime. Four different Quakers scored in the stretch with DiNola and Smith both netting a pair. Zawada and sophomore Aidan Maguire had the Blue Devils' scores, which came nearly 11 minutes apart.
Carroll finished the first 30 minutes with nine saves and the Quakers frustrated the Blue Devils on the clear. Duke was 8-of-12 in the clearing game in the opening half. Penn was excellent at the faceoff dot in the second quarter, winning 4-of-5.
The Quakers extended their lead to four three times in the second half, holding Duke to stretches of five-plus minutes without a goal. Danenza brought it within three to start the fourth quarter, but Penn once again had the answer as it capitalized on a man-up opportunity.
Trailing 13-9 with under five minutes to play, the Blue Devils made a valiant push with Danenza scoring three goals in a span of 1:48 to make it a one-goal game with 1:22 to play.
Penn, holding onto a 13-12 lead, won the ensuing faceoff and called a timeout. The Blue Devils brought their goaltender out as an extra defender and the Quakers were able to find the empty net to ice the two-goal victory.
Jake Naso went 15-of-29 in the faceoff game and picked up six ground balls. Jake Wilson led the defense with three caused turnovers, while Kenny Brower and Tyler Carpenter had two apiece. In goal, Patrick Jameison had 12 saves.

Notes

Brennan O'Neill scored one goal to extend his goal streak to 33 games, scoring 108 in that span. Dyson Williams pushed his scoring streak to 27 games with one goal.
O'Neill moves to sole possession of fifth place at Duke in career goals (151) and career points (255).
The loss snaps Duke's 14-game home win streak and makes Duke 16-10 all-time when ranked No. 1.
Zawada recorded his 19th game with at least three assists and his 22nd with at least five points.
Naso's 15 faceoff wins give him 866 for his career, moving him to 10th in NCAA Division I history and 34 away from becoming the ninth to reach 900. His 1,428 faceoffs taken are 11th on the NCAA career chart.

Up Next

Duke returns to Koskinen Stadium for a noon faceoff with No. 14 Princeton March 3. The Blue Devils will hold a silent auction of a host of items with all proceeds benefiting the Lead the Way Fund in honor of Duke's Jimmy Regan.

Quotes
John Danowski on the loss
"Penn was great. Excellent job coaching by Coach Murphy and his staff. Extremely well prepared. Riding and clearing … they were terrific. I thought tonight we weren't poised."

"You can lose a game and that can be a really positive thing, but you can lose a game and it's the way you lose. It's not so much losing, it's how you lose and I thought tonight I learned a lot about this 2024 team."

John Danowski on getting to come back and play Sunday
"It's a great thing [to playing Sunday] because you get to strap it up again. We said to the guys we kind of approach this as a great learning opportunity and we need to play again. We need to see if what we saw was really poor coaching by us in that we really did not prepare the guys well. Whether it was riding and clearing or ground ball play or man down or in the box on offense and defense. Do we have the right personnel in? It's gut check time."

To stay up to date with Blue Devils men's lacrosse, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeMLAX".

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