Kershis, Girard Spur Duke to Victory over No. 3 Richmond

Saturday, May 9

Richmond, Va.

7:30 p.m.

Duke University

10-4, 3-1

Richmond

14-2, 6-0

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Duke	3	3	3	5	14
Richmond	2	2	6	2	12

Cal Girard wins a faceoff against University of Richmond

Photo by: Matthew Mitrani

Kershis, Girard Spur Duke to Victory over No. 3 Richmond

5/9/2026 11:40:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

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RICHMOND, Va. – Duke sophomore Liam Kershis registered three goals and two assists and Cal Girard won 21-of-27 faceoffs to lead the Blue Devils to a thrilling 14-12 win over No. 3 Richmond in front of a record crowd of 6,805 in the opening round of the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament Saturday night in Richmond.

After Richmond outscored Duke 6-3 in the third quarter and jumped ahead 12-9 early in the fourth quarter, the Blue Devils clamped down on defense and clawed their way to victory. Duke scored the final five goals of the game with Benn Johnston scoring twice after being held scoreless for nearly 52 minutes. The Blue Devils scored three times in a span of 2:27 to tie the game with 6:09 remaining. After four minutes without a marker, Kyle Colsey gave Duke the lead for good with 1:37 left.

Aidan Maguire was outstanding for Duke's rope unit, posting two crucial goals, causing two turnovers and picking up five ground balls.

How it Happened

Richmond opened scoring 5:40 into the game, dodging to the right and beating Duke goaltender Buck Cunningham low.
The Blue Devils turned their defense into offense to tie the game as junior Mac Christmas grabbed a nugget and cleared the ball to Kyle Colsey who found Connor Nolen in the middle of the field for the score against an unsettled Spider defense.
After the Spiders went ahead 2-1, the Blue Devils responded with the final two scores of the quarter to take a 3-2 lead into the first break. Kershis threw one past the Richmond goalie following a faceoff win and freshman Anthony Drago beat his man and scored his first career goal to put the Blue Devils up one.
The Blue Devils went up 4-2 on a Michael Ortlieb tally to start the second quarter and Colsey answered for Duke after Richmond had made it a one-goal game again.
The back-and-forth continued with the Spiders getting their fourth of the night with 1:21 left. Duke won the ensuing faceoff and successfully drained a minute off the clock before Benn Johnston got a shot off. Ortlieb caught the misfire and fed to Tomas Delgado streaking towards the cage for the 6-4 lead at the half.
Girard won 10 of 11 faceoffs with eight ground balls in the first 30 minutes. In goal, Cunningham made seven stops.
Kershis started the third quarter by giving Duke its largest lead of the night before Richmond responded with three straight in a span of 4:37 to tie the game, 7-7, with 6:36 remaining in the third.
The fireworks at Robins Stadium continued with thrilling end-to-end action. Kershis finished his hat trick to put Duke back in front before Daniel Picard used an outstanding individual effort to tie the game. A Maguire shot from 35 yards put Duke back in front, but the Spiders refused to go away, answering 51 seconds later to make it 9-9.
Richmond capped the wild quarter with a last-second goal to head into the fourth quarter with a 10-9 lead. The Spiders netted three of the final four goals of the quarter to garner their first lead since it was 2-1.
Momentum stayed in the Spiders' favor as the No. 4 seed scored twice in the first four minutes of the final frame for a 12-9 lead.
Johnston extended his goal streak to 18 games, to pull Duke back within two midway through the fourth. Jack Pappendick got into the mix just over a minute later to bring the Blue Devils within one, while Johnston notched his second to tie the game 48 seconds later to set up the thrilling final six minutes.
Cunningham finished with seven saves as Duke outshot Richmond 40-27. The Blue Devils, led by Girard's career-high 16 ground balls, won the battle on the ground, 35-27.
Connor Knight posted 12 saves in goal for Richmond and Gavin Creo led the offense with four goals.

Notes

The Blue Devils improve to 45-24 all-time in NCAA Tournament action and to 2-4 when unseeded.
Duke advances to the NCAA quarterfinals for the 20th time overall and for the 14th time under head coach John Danowski.
Cal Girard won a career-high 21 faceoffs and picked up a career-best 16 ground balls. His 27 faceoff attempts are a season high. It is his 11th career game with double digit faceoff wins.
Liam Kershis notched his fourth career hat trick and posted a career-best five points. He has two more goals and eight more points in 14 games this season than he did in 18 outings in 2025.
Aidan Maguire matched his career high two goals, while picking up a season-best five ground balls. His two caused turnovers give him 66 for his career and leave him one shy of tying Cade van Raaphorst for fifth all-time at Duke.
Will Pedicano recorded one caused turnover to break Luke Duprey's Duke freshman record with 13 takeaways.
Junior Benn Johnston scored two goals to extend his goal streak to 18 games. He has 43 goals in that span. His two tallies give him 109 career points to move into sole possession of 48th on the Duke career list.
Head coach John Danowski posted his 275th career victory at Duke and his 40th career NCAA Tournament win.

Up Next

Duke will play the winner between No. 3 seed Virginia and Georgetown in the NCAA quarterfinals Sunday, May 17. Faceoff time will be announced following the conclusion of the May 10 contests.

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