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Ground Ball Notebook: Duke Wins 10th; Back Into Top 5
Duke Rolls Past Virginia
Led by 18 combined points from Justin Guterding and Jack Bruckner, the Blue Devils continued their hot stretch with a 20-11 victory over Virginia Saturday. Duke jumped out to a 6-0 lead and never looked back en route to a 10-2 halftime advantage. Duke’s 20 goals were the most a Blue Devil squad has scored on a Virginia team in series history. Danny Fowler finished the day with 11 total saves while Kyle Rowe won 15-of-26 draws and picked up eight ground balls at the faceoff X. Ethan Powley spearheaded Duke’s defensive effort with two caused turnovers and four ground balls.
ESPNU to Air an Inside Look at the Blue Devils April 19 on ESPNU
ESPN broadcasters and lacrosse personalities Paul Carcaterra and Quint Kessenich recently spent a day with the Blue Devils, taking an inside look at the program and spending time with players and coaches both at practice and on campus. Carcaterra and Kessenich joined Kyle Rowe and Danny Fowler to break down the faceoff and goalie positions before joining the coaching staff for a sit down and tour of the new weight room. They were treated to lunch in Duke’s new West Union with Jack Bruckner and Reilly Walsh before heading to talk lacrosse and Navy ROTC with Ethan Powley. They wrapped up the day with Justin Guterding and a Duke lacrosse practice. Check out ESPNU – Wednesday, April 19 at 6:30 p.m., to get a true inside look at the Blue Devils. Watch Preview.
Duke Jumps to 4th in National Polls
The Blue Devils have climbed into the top five of all three national polls this week following their 20-11 victory over Virginia. A winner of eight of the past nine outings, Duke is ranked fourth nationally behind Syracuse, Maryland and Denver. The Blue Devils are 3-2 against teams currently ranked in the top 20 of the USILA poll. The No. 4 ranking is the highest for Duke since being ranked fourth in the Feb. 29, 2016 USILA poll.
Another Weekly Award for a Blue Devil
For the third straight week, a Blue Devil took home at least one of the weekly honors handed out by the ACC. Junior Justin Guterding collected his first weekly award of the season, earning the Offensive Player of the Week recognition after tallying 10 points in Duke’s win over Virginia. Overall, the Blue Devils have collected six weekly honors, second behind North Carolina’s seven. Syracuse, Virginia and Notre dame all have five apiece. Five different Blue Devils have garnered a weekly nod this season, the most of any team in the league.
ACC OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
March 13 Jack Bruckner, Duke & Zed Williams, Virginia
April 10 Jack Bruckner, Duke
April 17 Justin Guterding , Duke
ACC DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Feb. 27 Cade Van Raaphorst, Duke & Garrett Epple, Notre Dame
March 13 Danny Fowler, Duke
April 3 Kyle Rowe, Duke & Scott Firman, Syracuse
April 10 Danny Fowler, Duke & Stephen Kelly, North Carolina
Guterding Joins the 200 Club; Bruckner on His Heels
Needing only one point to reach the 200-point benchmark, Guterding left no doubt he would reach it and then some as he totaled 10 points from six goals and four assists this past Saturday. The Garden City, N.Y., native reached the milestone in just 50 career games, tying Zack Greer as the fastest Blue Devil to do so. He currently has 209 career points to rank tied for 10th in the Duke records book and 11 shy of matching Tony Cullen and Peter Rubin for eighth. Bruckner is on his heels with 185 career points, 15 short of 200 with at least three games remaining in 2017.
Guterding Putting Together Memorable Year
Having reached the 100-goal mark and 200-point mark, Guterding is putting together a memorable junior campaign. Already the only Blue Devil in program history to record at least 70 points in his first two seasons, Guterding is on pace to far surpass that this season and register one of the top 10 performances in Duke history. With his average of just over five points per game and at least three games remaining, Guterding is on pace to score nearly 84 points before the NCAA Tournament. His 5.23 points per game average is currently just ahead of Jordan Wolf’s 5.15 average in 2014 when he scored a Duke record 103 points in 20 games. Wolf and Danowski are the lone Blue Devils in program history to average over five points per game in a single season.
Duke Defense One of the Finest Under Danowski
Duke’s 2017 defensive performance through 13 games has proven to be one of the Blue Devils’ finest since head coach John Danowski took the reins in 2007. Duke’s current 8.23 goals against average is the best for a Danowski-coached Duke squad since the 2009 team sported a 7.85 GAA. The Blue Devils’ talented 2007, 2008 and 2009 teams all had goals against averages under eight. In Duke’s three national championship seasons (2010, 2013, 2014), the Blue Devils allowed 8.92, 9.54 and 9.00 goals per game, respectively, through the first 13 games of the season.
Duke Secures the No. 2 Seed in ACC Tournament
The Blue Devils clinched the second seed in the upcoming ACC Championship with the win over Virginia and North Carolina’s loss to Syracuse. The Orange captured its first ACC regular season crown since joining the ACC. Duke will be the No. 2 seed for the sixth time and the first since 2014. The Blue Devils are 7-3 as the second seed and captured the 2002 and 2009 titles from that position. Duke will go up against the winner of the North Carolina and Notre Dame game to be played Saturday in Notre Dame. The ACC Tournament will be held in Durham April 28 and 30. All three games will be aired on ESPNU.
First Half Defense
During this 8-1 stretch, the Blue Devils’ defense has been outstanding in holding teams to just 7.77 goals per game and a .256 shooting percentage. Duke, on the strength of its defense couple with an offense clicking of late, has been able to build solid first-half leads. The Blue Devils are holding its past nine opponents to an average of 12.9 shots and 3.67 goals in the first half, while compiling nearly 20 and seven of their own, respectively, in the first 30 minutes.
Inside the Numbers of the Battle with Golden Eagles
The Blue Devils travel to the Great Lakes region Saturday for a matchup with Marquette. Duke and the Golden Eagles both features two of the nation’s top defenses in allowing 8.23 and 8.18 goals per game, respectively. Marquette has allowed double digit goals in three games, while Duke has let in more than nine four times. The Golden Eagles gave up a season-high 11 in a recent loss to Notre Dame, which Duke held to eight tallies.
On the other end of the field, Duke has a major advantage in averaging 13.08 goals per game compared to Marquette’s 9.82. The Blue Devils have failed to score 10 goals just twice this season, while the Golden Eagles have done so six times. They registered a season-low two goals against the nation’s top defense, Richmond, compared to Duke’s nine against the Spiders. The two teams share five common opponent with Marquette going 3-2 in the five outings and Duke 4-1.
Comparing 2017 and 2013
Duke’s 2013 and 2017 season have some similar story lines. Both squads started the year 2-2, with the 2013 team eventually dropping to 2-4 before going on a seven-game win streak to move to 9-4 through 13 games. This year’s Blue Devils started 2-2 before going on an 8-1 run to improve to 10-3.
The 2013 team was averaging 12.92 goals per game, while this year’s group is scoring 13.08. Duke averaged 39.9 shots per game in 2013 and is averaging 37.6 this season. The shot percentage is in the 2017 team’s favor at .348 compared to .324 in 2013. The biggest difference comes individually as the 2013 squad relied heavily on a veteran group offensively with six of the top seven scorers being either juniors or seniors. In 2017, only two of the top seven scorers are upperclassmen, but similar to the how the 2013 group did, they are starting to gel as a unit.
| Category | 2013 | 2017 |
| Shots/Game | 39.9 | 37.6 |
| Goals/Game | 12.92 | 13.08 |
| Assists/Game | 7.46 | 8.38 |
| Points/Game | 20.4 | 21.5 |
| Shot% | .324 | .348 |
| GAA | 9.54 | 8.22 |
| GBs/Game | 36.2 | 29.7 |
| EMO | 16-38 (.421) | 17-34 (.500) |
| Man Down | 35-53 (.660) | 27-38 (.711) |
| Clears | 179-206 (.869) | 201-229 (.878) |
| Faceoff % | 209-338 (.618) | 173-324 (.534) |
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