After a disappointing finish in the ACC championship game and a week off due to finals, the Blue Devils will look to close the regular season on a high note before finding out their NCAA tournament fate.
No. 10 Duke will take on Boston University Sunday at 1 p.m. at New Balance Field in Boston looking to bounce back after falling 14-8 to then-No. 7 Syracuse in last Sunday's ACC title game. The Blue Devils went on a 3-1 run to cut the Orange lead to one midway through the fourth quarter, but a three-hour weather delay halted Duke's momentum. After the restart, Syracuse closed the game with five straight goals to capture its second consecutive ACC championship.
With the NCAA tournament selection show scheduled for 9 p.m. Sunday, Duke hopes to regain its footing and get its top-five offense that averages 13.4 goals per game back in a groove following exam week. But to get back to their winning ways, the Blue Devils will have to knock off a team that has not played since April 22 and has nothing to lose after failing to qualify for its conference tournament.
"This is their super bowl," Duke head coach John Danowski said. "This is their playoffs. They're not going anywhere after this weekend. Even though they haven't played well as of late, we know they're very capable and very dangerous."
ACC Offensive Player of the Year Myles Jones will lead the Blue Devils (10-7) on the road after picking up his latest accolade earlier in the week. The senior midfielder carries a 52-game point streak into his final regular season contest and spearheads an offense that was held to 10 goals or fewer in back-to-back games for the first time all season last week. Jones will look to get going early after he was held without a first-half point against the Orange and in Duke's overtime win April 29 against Notre Dame in the ACC tournament semifinals, but it will not be easy against a Terrier defense that allows 9.5 goals per contest.
Jones' partner in crime—All-ACC midfielder and fellow senior Deemer Class—will also look to get back on track against Boston University (8-6) after shooting 2-for-19 in the two ACC tournament games.
"We want to move the ball faster. We thought it got stuck in our sticks a little bit," Class said. "We obviously didn't have a great shooting day, so we've been working on mixing up our shots. We felt like we were being a little predictable, so guys have been really focusing hard on that."
But if the Terrier defense focuses too much on the Blue Devils' dangerous midfield duo, Duke's other offensive players have shown how dangerous they can be in recent contests.
In the Blue Devils' 10-9 comeback win against the Fighting Irish, seniors Chad Cohan and Case Matheis combined for four goals and five assists. Perhaps more importantly for Danowski's squad as the regular season concludes, Duke's second midfield of Brad Smith, Matthew Giampetroni and Tripp Transou combined for four of the Blue Devils' 11 points against Syracuse with the first midfield of Jones, Class and Cohan struggling for much of the game.
If Duke can get continue to get production from its other midfielders toward the end of the season, its chances of making a deep NCAA tournament run after being eliminated in the first round last year will drastically increase.
"We've been waiting for that all year. We've been waiting for any three guys to take those spots and quite frankly they hadn't earned it—nobody had earned it," Danowski said. "That's going to be really important if we're going to be able to compete in the heat hopefully beyond this weekend."
On the other end of the field Sunday, junior goalkeeper Danny Fowler and an improved Blue Devil defense will look to slow down an offense headlined by Jack Wilson and James Burr, who have combined for 48 goals and 17 assists this season. After struggling earlier in the season, Duke's defensive unit has tightened the screws against opponents of late, with Fowler boasting an 8.0 goals against average in the Blue Devils' last five contests. Fowler posted a season-high 17 saves in the loss to Syracuse.
Discipline on both ends of the field will likely be key for Duke Sunday against one of the best faceoff specialists in the nation—Boston University's Sam Talkow. Talkow ranks second in the country by winning 69.5 percent of his faceoffs, but will have his work cut out for him against Blue Devil junior Kyle Rowe, who ranks 10th at 62.4 percent.
"That's challenge number one, but not only is he terrific—the wing play is really good as well," Danowski said of the Terriers' strength at the X. "We're going to have to be really good at the draw, we're going to have to be really good on the wings. We have to be prepared not to win a lot of faceoffs and play a lot of defense."
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