The ninth-ranked lacrosse team swallowed a hard dose of reality this weekend in College Park, Md.
The Blue Devils lost to No. 10 Maryland 8-6, despite leading 4-3 going into the fourth period. They allowed the Terrapins to control the ball throughout the game, and their impatience on offense led directly to many of the Terrapins' scoring chances.
"I think that we are a better team," Blue Devil senior attacker Scott Harrison said. "They just had a great gameplan, and they stuck to it. It was our first real game, and I wouldn't say that we had the jitters or anything. I don't know what happened, to be honest."
Duke held a 4-3 advantage at the end of three periods. But the Terrapins ran off three goals in less than 90 seconds. Maryland freshman Andrew Whipple scored with 12:37 left in the game to tie the score at 4-4. Less than a minute later, he scored again to give the Terrapins a lead that they would not relinquish the rest of the game.
"We had a sense of urgency to score in the fourth period, and that contributed to their run of goals," Harrison said. "We made some stupid decisions on the offensive end, turned the ball over, and they were able to capitalize on those pretty quickly."
It was a game that Maryland controlled from the start. The Terrapins put their stamp on the style of play, confining the Blue Devils to brief periods of offense. When Duke did get the ball, it was its own worst enemy.
"I don't think we could play much worse on offense," Duke head coach Mike Pressler said. "We were ahead 4-3 going into the fourth quarter, despite playing as bad as we've played on offense in the last three or four years.
"We just did not execute the fundamentals of our sport--catching, throwing and scooping the ball were things that we just really didn't execute. Our turnovers in the first three quarters of the game were the difference."
Those turnovers led to the Terrapins' ability to control the ball for long stretches of the game. That not only frustrated the Blue Devils, but also led to their frenzied, erratic offensive play. It was a cycle that seemed to repeat itself throughout the game.
"We played good defense for all the time that they had the ball, but we just didn't give our offense a chance to set up and create the offense that we're used to creating," Pressler said. "I give Maryland partial credit for that, but I give most of the fault of that to our inability to execute and handle the ball in the offensive end."
Thus, the Blue Devils left Maryland with not only their first defeat of the year and an Atlantic Coast Conference loss, but they also learned a valuable lesson about themselves.
"We definitely have some talent, but we can't just show up on the field and expect to win," Harrison said. "We've got to come out with a lot of intensity. We've been talking a lot about how good we think we're going to be. [The Maryland game] was kind of an awakening.
"I think a lot of people had their eyes opened to who we are, and what we need to do in order to win. I think this game will serve as a real motivational tool in the future."
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