2014 NCAA tournament preview: Massachusetts
(03/19/14 12:01pm)
Massachusetts Minutemen
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____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>No. 7 Duke could not find a way to score down the stretch as it lost 72-63 to No. 6 Virginia in the ACC tournament championship game. The Blue Devils leaned on a big second-half performance from Jabari Parker, but ultimately lost out to the superior Cavalier defense.Revisiting the three keys to the game:
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With NCAA Championships looming on the horizon, All-American senior Dylan Nollner will look to capture another title at the NCAA Mid/South-Atlantic Regionals this weekend before turning his focus on the Championships.After claiming first place at regionals last year, Nollner knows what it takes to make it to Columbus, Ohio—the location of this years NCAA Championships. The Blue Devil fencers will have to mentally prepare for the regionals should they hope to move on to the final round of postseason play. This applies more so to the seniors, as this weekend has the possibility to be their last meet in a Duke uniform. "You can't think about it, you've got to block that all from your mind," Nollner said. "If you dwell on that kind of stuff—your legacy and things like this is my last chance and I have to qualify—if you put that pressure on yourself, in terms of performance, you're going to blow it. Mentally it's a fine line to walk between being too confident and too arrogant and putting no pressure on yourself on all."With this pressure comes Nollner's high expectations, which have steadily increased throughout his four years at Duke—the senior finished the regular season with a 35-14 clip and has now qualified for regionals in each season of his career. The coming weekend will grant him a final opportunity to move on to Columbus and claim the title as the nation's top epee, a title he came close to capturing last year and is determined to come away with in his final attempt."I'm going out there to win. I won regionals last year and was a point away from semi-finals at the Championships," he said. "Obviously that's been in the back of my mind all season, all off-season. I'm not going in there just to be nostalgic and a four-time qualifier, I've got one thing on my mind and that's to win."Nollner was named an All-American after he finished fifth in the men's epee at last year's NCAA Championships, becoming Duke's fifth male fencer to finish in the top five. Although his sights are certainly set on returning to the final round, he and the rest of his team understand how important it is not to overlook the regionals, as they are a useful tool in assessing what adjustments need to be made before the NCAA Championships."I've historically done well at the regionals and I think that's because of the kind of pressure I put on myself to perform well," Nollner said. "I kind of see it as a pretest for NCAA's itself, so I can measure up against my competition in the two weeks before NCAAs and really hone in and say, 'These are the things in the next two weeks I really need to hammer in and practice a lot more.'"The women's team is not without its postseason experience, as junior epee Sarah Collins will be looking to secure her third straight trip to the NCAA Championships. She is one of only six Blue Devils to qualify for multiple trips to the Championships and will lead the team as the only women's fencer to have made it past the Mid/South-Atlantic Regionals. Both she and Nollner are upperclassman epees and leaders of their respective teams. The two spent their time at the Championships last year training and have developed their leadership skills, as many of the team's fencers look to them as beacons of success."We're both on the epee squad, which makes it kind of nice as far as training," Nollner said. "It's nice having both captains qualify and knowing what it takes, so that can kind of be pervasive through our leadership roles and through what we want to do with the team."As leaders, Nollner and Collins have kept a watchful eye on their fellow teammates so as to make sure everyone is training properly heading into the weekend. There tends to be a habit in which less-experienced fencers become so focused on regionals that they over-prepare and leave themselves too tired to perform well. Nollner has tried to spend the season teaching the younger fencers about the importance of consistency in their training. More importantly, the senior has made a point to practice what he's preached."People are prone to have a little bit of tunnel vision sometimes and say, 'Oh, regionals is coming up, I really need to work my ass off now and I really need to put in the time now,'" he said. "But I've tried to preach consistency throughout the whole season, throughout the whole year, so you're not trying to put in too much work at the end and stress yourself out mentally and physically."
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After back-to-back losses, the Blue Devils will look to rebound when they take on Georgetown.The No. 14 Hoyas come to town fresh off an overtime victory against then-No. 19 Princeton Saturday. When Georgetown faces off against Duke at Koskinen Stadium at 5 p.m. Wednesday, the No. 6 Blue Devils must correct their mistakes following a poor defensive performance against then-No. 3 Maryland Saturday.After the Terrapins drubbed Duke on its home turf 19-10, the Blue Devils need a signature home victory as it nears the midpoint of the season. Maryland scored at will against the Blue Devil defense—it rattled off two separate runs of five or more unanswered goals—something head coach Kerstin Kimel knows cannot happen again if they want to be contenders in the long run."The biggest thing that we struggled with against Maryland was that we weren't organized out of transition, and that's something that's really fundamental, and that was something that was really hard for the girls to look at on film and say, 'We know better,'" Kimel said. "Obviously that doesn't mean we would have prevented everything because again, Maryland is a pretty potent offense, but I think we certainly would have done better."Wednesday's game will mark the third top-15 ranked opponent in three games, as the Blue Devils (3-2) have faced off against the likes of then-No. 4 Northwestern and then-No. 3 Maryland in their past two contests.Although Wednesday's contest provides Duke with an opportunity to turn the recent stretch around, the Georgetown (2-1) offense will not make that easy for the Blue Devils.The Hoyas love to take a high volume of shots, averaging 35.7 shots per game and 15.3 goals per game, both numbers that beat out Duke's season averages of 25.8 and 14.2. In order to slow down Georgetown, the Blue Devils will have to flip the script and take advantage of the Hoyas' weak defense in order to counter and limit the amount of shots that Duke goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea will be forced to defend. "A key to [taking advantage of Georgetown's defense] is winning the draw," Kimel said. "We've got to make sure of two things. We have to really focus on winning the draw tomorrow so that we have possessions and when we make stops defensively, [and we have to focus on] getting the ball up the field." Entering Wednesday, Georgetown's save percentage of 22.6 percent is less than half of what Duryea averages for the Blue Devils, as the second-team All-American is posting a mark of 45.8 percent. "We're taking everything that we've learned our past two games and putting it all into this game," Duryea said. "Hopefully our defense will come together more as a unit. That's something we've really been working on."When the two squads faced off last season in Washington, D.C., the game resulted in an instant classic. With the game on the line, Georgetown had a free-position attempt with five seconds remaining. In what was only her second career start, Duryea made the game-saving stop to secure the 11-10 victory for the Blue Devils. Although the team fondly remembers the excitement of last year's win, a strong victory this year would go a long way in turning the team's momentum around before getting into the thick of conference play."We felt like winning on the road at Georgetown [last year] was just a good win, more so than looking at the minutiae of it," Kimel said. "Going into this game, it's always a good game, a competitive game with Georgetown. We both have teams where our scoring is very balanced. We've played, to date, some better teams than they have. It's just going to be a good game."
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Despite a valiant effort, two runs of five or more unanswered goals by the Terrapins proved to be too much for the Blue Devils, as they dropped their second straight home game.After clawing its way back into the game, Duke was unable to prevent a potent Maryland offense from racking up the goals Sunday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium as the Blue Devils dropped their ACC opener 19-10. No. 6 Duke struggled to keep up with the No. 3 Terrapins' high-octane offense from the opening draw, as Maryland jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first 7:15 of play. "Right at the beginning of the game they went on a large streak and that obviously isn’t how we want to play and how we want to start a game, so I think that’s what went wrong," defender Gabby Moise said. "We were going hard off the draw, I just didn’t think we got back in fast enough for them to be man up that many times.”Junior midfielder Beth Glaros led the way for Maryland (6-0, 1-0 in the ACC) with six goals, including three in the early five-goal spurt. While the Blue Devils (3-2, 0-1) were able to partially neutralize normal threats like redshirt junior attacker Brooke Griffin, who averages 2.8 goals per game, they couldn't withstand the Terrapins offensive depth. Five Maryland players scored multiple goals by the time the final buzzer sounded."Maryland played a great game, and they have a lot of threats," head coach Kerstin Kimel said. "We had a hard time, but I think we did a good job neutralizing [Brooke Griffin.] But we let [Glaros] score five or six goals. It’s hard, you shut down one big threat and then you have four or five others to deal with. I don’t think we got ourselves started on a very good foot today, which I think hurt our confidence."The Blue Devils entered the half trailing 9-5 but seemed to find their composure in the locker room, as they came bursting out of the gates with two early goals to open the second half to cut the lead to two and put the game within arm's reach. But once again, the Maryland offense proved to be too much for Duke."In the second half, we came out, got the draw quick, and we were able to convert on those opportunities," attacker Kerrin Maurer said. "The reason why we did so well in the second half was because of the draw and then we ran the offense that we worked on in practice. It was just the opportunity to have the ball that helped us score the goals in the second half."With the score 9-7 with 28:39 left in the contest, the Terrapins completed their second run of five or more goals on the day, reeling off six straight in a mere eight minutes to push the lead to 15-7. This would prove to be insurmountable for the Blue Devils, as the closest they were able to cut the score to following the Maryland run was six goals.The Terrapins were able to put up such gaudy numbers due to the fact that they largely controlled the tempo for the majority of the game. Duke was outshot by Maryland 23-40 and lost the battle of the draw 21-9. With so many scoring opportunities for the Terrapins, the Blue Devil defense just could not hold them off all game."Defensively, we have to find a way to tighten up because we came out slow," Kimel said. "That’s the best way to put it. I think we can’t afford that against teams with high power offenses. We have to do a better job of protecting [goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea.] And then just doing the little things and the basics well."Duke closes out its three-game home stretch Wednesday when it hosts Georgetown. The Blue Devils will look to put an end to their two-game losing streak and get things back on track before getting into the thick of conference play.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Staring at the end of the regular season and a possible winless performance, senior saber Kodia Cigna-Baye and the rest of the women's team managed to pull out one of the biggest victories of the year to end the season on a high note.In a reversal of roles, it was the women's team who came away with a victory against a ranked team in No. 10 St. John's at the Temple Duals—the team's first win against a top-10 team this season—while the men faced their fair share of challenges against the stiff competition but managed to finish 1-2 in what is Duke's toughest meet of the season."I'm really proud of how all of our girls did," Baye-Cigna said. "Even though we may not have won as many as we would have liked to—everyone wants to win them all—we still fenced really well."The women's team began the regular season's final meet in disappointing fashion as they dropped the day's first three matches against the likes of No. 8 Temple, No. 1 Princeton and No. 6 Penn State. The team seemed to be on their way to a winless outing before they faced off against the Red Storm.Prior to Saturday, the women had not registered a victory against a top-10 team all year, as opposing top-ranked squads had simply been able to overpower the Blue Devils in the close bouts throughout the match. Oftentimes, as was the case in the early matches Saturday, Duke would fall short by a small margin like it did in 15-12 losses to both the Owls and Nittany Lions. Until Saturday's final contest, the Blue Devils simply had not been able to break through for a victory. But their matchup against St. John's was a different story."Sometimes it's tough to stay in the right mindset for some things because it's such a mental sport—you always have to be on your mental toes, if you will," Baye-Cigna said. "Fencing Penn State, I wasn't there mentally. But for St. John's I refocused and re-prepared myself and had a little bit of fun."As Duke entered the contest at 0-3, it easily could have sulked its way to 0-4 and accepted that it was going to be a long bus ride home. But the Blue Devils managed to dig deep and do something they hadn't done all season—upset a top-10 team.After the epee and foil squads both lost their overall duals to the Red Storm 4-5 and 3-6, respectively, the then-winless saber squad was Duke's last hope. With the match on the line, the team turned to the saber squads' senior leader Cigna-Baye. Knowing the squad was the team's last hope for a victory, Cigna-Baye put forth her best effort of the day, winning all three of her matches. Combined with the four wins registered by junior Libby Malcolm and freshman Angelica Hubbard, the sabers ran through St. John's for a 7-2 win to give the squad, and the team, the 14-13 overall victory against the Red Storm."I actually didn't know [that the team had yet to defeat a top-10 team]," Baye-Cigna said. "Most of the time, at least for me when I go in, I take it bout-by-bout. Whatever happens in the past is in the past. Sometimes we say, 'Leave it on the strip.' So whatever you do, you try your hardest and the rest you leave on the strip. But it was really good to win against St. John's."Malcolm also managed to contribute to another major upset when she defeated Princeton's Diamond Wheeler—an All-American and National Championship-qualified fencer who boasts a 60-13 record for the season—in their bout earlier that day, which Baye-Cigna called "the highlight of my day."The women's epee squad led the way with a 2-2 record, as the foil and saber squads both notched 1-3 clips at the conclusion of Saturday's action. Junior Sarah Collins and sophomore Isabella Barna both finished 8-4 on the day to lead the epee squad.The men's team, which had been on a roll as of late after notching victories against No. 10 Stanford and No. 4 Notre Dame during the Northwestern Duals and then going 4-1 at the Duke Home Meet, failed to find consistent success against some of the nation's top teams.But despite consecutive 16-11 losses to No. 8 St. John's and No. 2 Penn State, the No. 10 Blue Devils managed to notch their 20th win of the season with a victory against Princeton. With the regular season at an end, the fencers will now look ahead to the NCAA Mid/South-Atlantic Regionals, scheduled for March 8."We had such a good showing and we fenced really well, although our numbers may not indicate it, which is hard to explain to people who don't 100% understand fencing," Baye-Cigna said. "We had a pretty strong showing and we'll be working hard the next two weeks to get ready for regionals."
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After a full week off to rest and play in the snow following the Duke Home Meet, the Blue Devils will hit the road once again as they face their toughest test of the season in the Temple Duals.The Junior Olympics took place this past weekend, but Duke elected not to send any of its fencers in order to rest for this weekend's meet. As it turns out, the Blue Devils chose a great week to rest, as classes were cancelled Wednesday through Friday due to Winter Storm Pax."The week off was a nice break after the Duke Meet because we had to set up and tear down the entire thing which took a ton of work," freshman saber Christopher Monti said. "We've been training really, really hard the whole semester so it's been very different for all of us. The snow week was pretty well deserved."While some of the fencers were able to connect with one another and spend the snow days together, the freshman were separated from the rest of the team, as buses ceased to run beginning Wednesday and prevented convenient travel between East and West Campus. "I live on East campus with the rest of the freshman. There's one girl [Angelica Hubbard] in my dorm who's on the fencing team, and she and I hung out a little bit," Monti said. "But it was all way too icy and way too dangerous to try and trek to West Campus."With a week of rest and sledding behind them, the Blue Devils have now turned their attention upon what will be the most challenging lineup of teams they have had to face all season. No. 2 Penn State, No. 5 Princeton, No. 7 Pennsylvania and No. 8 St. John's are all on the schedule for Duke.Though all matches will be considered equal in importance, Monti pointed to the matchup against the Quakers as the one the Blue Devils will be the most passionate about Saturday, as they have dropped both matches against Pennsylvania so far this season. The first loss came at the Penn State Duals in the form of a 18-9 defeat, and the other was a 22-5 rout at the Philly Invitational. "I know saber has a vendetta against Penn so we're really looking to improve our performance against them," Monti said. "We've been practicing really hard and really trying to tweak our fencing in order to find out what we've been doing wrong in all those bouts. Definitely against UPenn we've had our troubles, and we're trying to prove as much as possible against them." After Monti and fellow saber sophomore Charles Copti began the hot streak the team has been on, senior epee Alessio Santoro stepped up at the Duke Home Meet and led the team with a 13-1 clip. Duke has shown the ability throughout the season to have different leaders step up at each meet, which keeps the team from relying on one person to carry the squad. This in turn feeds back into Blue Devils' team-first mindset."As a team, we really work well together. We can tell when someone's lacking or when's someone's just not able to figure out another fencer," Monti said. "We're able to step down and let someone else take a stab at it, no pun intended."The host Owls boast the eighth-ranked women's team in the nation and will be favored in each of their matchups come Saturday, although Duke may not feel quite as concerned about the bout as it had prior to the Duke Home Meet.The Blue Devil women are well-acquainted with Temple, as the two teams faced off two weeks ago at the Duke Home Meet. The Owls came away with a 16-11 victory, marking the match as Duke's sole loss in a weekend that resulted with a 4-1 mark for the Blue Devils. Retrospectively, the defeat was not as negative as the team took it that day, as it provided Duke with the one thing it needed most heading into this weekend against the Owls—confidence.Knowing they have the ability to go toe-to-toe with Temple, the Blue Devils' confidence will be very high for a team that has yet to register a win against a top-10 team. An upset on the last weekend of regular season play would go a long way in terms of momentum for the postseason.Saturday's meet will signify the last regular season meet prior to NCAA Regionals, and will give many of the fencers an extra reason to perform well at Temple. "Most people want to keep their standings for regionals as high as they can," Monti said. "I think that would sound like our consensus that we've all had as a team in general. Other than that, fence as hard as you can."
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Rivalry or not, the final chapter of Duke-Maryland in the ACC was riveting enough to be described by Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski as "one for the ages."On a night when the ball never seemed to bounce their way, the Blue Devils were able to overcome their worst shooting performance of the year by doing the little things and—with a little bit of help from the basketball gods—walk away with a 69-67 victory in the last conference matchup between Duke and the Terrapins. After the game, a nostalgic Krzyzewski was adamant that he will miss the annual rivalry games against Maryland. "I have been the most outspoken, in a good way, about what they have done. I have said all along that they are part of the ACC," Krzyzewski said. "Over the years, the players, the coaches and the teams that have shared these unforgettable moments, I don’t know what it’s worth. It won’t be replicated."To say Duke had an off-night from the floor might be an understatement. The Blue Devils shot 33.3 percent from the field for the game, including the opening stretch of the second half in which they missed 17-of-19 shots. Three-point shooting—an area in which Duke usually excels—was not something the Blue Devils were able to lean on as they shot 5-for-24 from behind-the-arc. But the game's biggest shots—minus Jabari Parker's go-ahead dunk with 1:05 remaining—didn't come from the paint or from long range, but rather from the charity stripe.With their shots failing to fall from every other spot on the floor, the Blue Devils were 28-of-34 from the free throw line. Forward Rodney Hood said that with the team unable to find its shooting stroke, the Duke coaching staff encouraged players to attack the rim."We weren't hitting shots. We were taking good shots but they just didn't roll in today," Hood said. "Coach called a timeout and drew a play up for me to get into the lane and I shot a floater and it went. We just had to attack the basket and get fouled and we did a great job of stepping up and hitting our free throws."But Saturday night's game was about more than the Blue Devils' resiliency and ability to find a way to win. It was the perfect finish to the series, a series Duke now leads 114-63. As the last time Maryland and Duke will face off as ACC foes—the Terrapins are Big Ten-bound following this season—the Blue Devils were able to go out with a much-needed victory.From the glory days of Lefty Driesell to the "Miracle Minute" in 2001—when Duke stormed back to beat then-No. 8 Maryland after trailing by 10 with less than a minute remaining—to the JJ Reddick cell phone incident, the matchup is one that will be missed by both sides."It started with Lefty [Driesell] really. You talk about all these years, [Bob] Wade, then Gary [Williams] did an incredible job, and now Mark [Turgeon]," Krzyzewski said. "The one consistent factor is that they have been great games.”
Ryan Kelly's journey to the NBA was not an easy one, but thanks to five games in the D-League and some opportune timing, the former Blue Devil now starts for the NBA's most famous team.
Duke doesn’t get the chance to fence in front of a home crowd often—it happens once a year to be exact—but the Blue Devils made the most of their opportunity this weekend at the annual Duke Home Meet.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In the days before the Blue Devils' annual Duke Home Meet, Duke will spend its time preparing not only for the teams it will face on the pistes Saturday and Sunday, but preparing the pistes themselves.Unlike other Blue Devil teams—minus wrestling—the fencing team has to set up the entire array of necessary fencing equipment and seating in the days leading up to the Duke Home Meet. Though it may not be as grueling as last week's combined 35 hours spent on the team bus going to and from Evanston, Ill., getting everything set up and transforming Card Gymnasium into a state-of-the-art fencing hall is no easy task."It's always wonderful to see the gym just totally transformed from dumpy looking Card to the masterpiece that Alex creates," senior sabre Kodia Baye-Cigna said. "Essentially everything in here is the product of almost 30 years of hard work on the behalf of Alex and [Beguinet's wife and recruiting coordinator Elizabeth Beguinet]."Sophomore sabre Charles Copti cited head coach Alex Beguinet's dedication to the tournament as the main reason it is as highly respected as it is. Many of the pieces of equipment and decorative displays actually belong to Beguinet and have just accrued in his storage as he gathered them throughout his 28-year career with Duke.In the week leading up to the meet, Beguinet works nonstop to make sure each and every piece that will be used during the tournament is neatly displayed and correctly positioned. Copti said the meet was Beguinet's "baby", and as one of the difficulties that comes with having an infant, Beguinet does not get much sleep as he tends to perfecting every inch of Card Gymnasium."[Beguinet] has been here since 6 a.m," Copti said. "He slept here last night. He sleeps here every night until next Monday to make sure everything is perfect."But the coach is not the only one putting in the man hours when it comes to setup. The athletes also are integral to the process of transforming Card Gymnasium, as they spend any free time they have during the week helping Beguinet and the coaching staff prepare the gym for the weekend."We all have to commit at least an hour-and-a-half but basically it's a situation of if you're not in class, not studying for a test—you're here," Copti said. "People end up doing a lot more than an hour-and-a-half because that's how things end up working out."Although the Duke fencers are forced to give up some of their time to assist with the setup, they get to reap the benefits of hosting one of the nation's top fencing competitions.The buzz surrounding the Duke Home Meet is a result of everything from the promptness of the start time on meet days to the referees' accommodations to the complete transformation of Card Gymnasium undertakes—as the fencers, coaches and even athletic department personnel all lend a hand to set up bleachers, work on wiring and put up scoreboards."A lot of schools don't do this," Copti said. "They have great facilities of course, but they don't put as much time and effort into making it look as amazing."Once the setup is done, Duke will be able to focus on the meet, which is coming at the perfect time for the Blue Devils. Both of Duke's teams seem to have hit a midseason stride following last week's 8-1 and 8-4 performances by the men's and women's teams, respectively, at the Northwestern Duals.This weekend will feature another opportunity to post a stellar record for both groups as the men's team will take on the likes of Air Force, Brandeis, MIT, John Hopkins and North Carolina Saturday while the women will face off against the same teams sans Johns Hopkins and adding in No. 9 Temple Sunday. Both days' events will run from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.Although the matchup against the Owls is a highly awaited challenge for the Duke women's team—which has yet to defeat a ranked team this season—it is North Carolina that will have the squad the most excited, especially in front of a home crowd. The opportunity to play in front of friends is not one the fencers are allowed often, as the majority of their meets are several states away."People always perform a little bit stronger here," Baye-Cigna said. "Everyone gets really pumped about being at home and having something to share with their friends. Because it's really hard when you always fence in Pennsylvania, you can't really invite your friends to it."For Baye-Cigna and the rest of the seniors, it will be their last chance to duel in front of a home crowd. And while Baye-Cigna doesn't see herself getting emotional, she knows it will be tough once cleanup is finished Monday. "For the seniors last year, it was a little emotional. I'm not much of a crier so I doubt I'll be crying but you never know. You never know," she said.
After winning 10 games with two- and-three-star recruits in 2013, Duke took the next step towards repeating the success of last year when it announced one of its most talented recruiting classes in program history Wednesday.
Lee garnered offers from nine schools and visited Ole Miss and and California in addition to Duke and Vanderbilt.