When Kerstin Kimel was a senior in high school pursuing collegiate women's lacrosse programs, she often wished that Duke had such a program. "Wouldn't it be great if Duke had a women's lacrosse team?" she pondered.
Two years after she completed a stellar career on Maryland's women's lacrosse team, Kimel's dreams have come true. And she will be at the helm for the Blue Devils as women's lacrosse competes at Duke for the first time as a varsity sport this spring.
When Kimel arrived in Durham of December of 1994, she had numerous resources to work with to start her program, including a club team loaded with athletic talent. She noted that this year's sophomore class contains numerous top lacrosse players who came to Duke hoping the sport would turn varsity.
Sophomore Lorrie Meyercord was one of those players. She remembers in September of 1994 when the team was granted varsity status. Ever since then, she and the other potential varsity members have been waiting anxiously for the team's first game.
"It's been like an eternal preseason," Meyercord said. "We got a coach in December. Then we had to try-out in September. Then came fall preseason and now spring preseason."
From the September tryouts, Kimel chose approximately 25 players to compose the inaugural team. Fifteen of those players played on last year's club team, including Meyercord and sophomore Amy Murnick, a first-team high school All-American. Murnick can already tell the difference in attitude she and her former club teammates have undergone with the new varsity status.
"I definitely think our priorities have had to change," Murnick said. "Club was for fun-whoever showed up the most, played the most. If you won, you were happy, but it didn't matter.
"Now we're out to show that even though we are a first-year program, we can be contenders."
Kimel said the best thing about the group of players selected from the tryouts is they are a great bunch of personalities, which will come in handy if the team struggles this year. As with any first-year program, Kimel expects some struggle-both mentally and physically. The Blue Devils do have talent; the only thing they lack is experience.
"Don't get me wrong-we're going to prepare to win every game we can," Kimel said. "But this year, I think, predominately is going to be a learning experience for Theresa [Ingram, her assistant head coach] and I and our players."
For the most part, the names on the Blue Devils' roster are unknown to the rest of the Duke community and the lacrosse world. Players like Murnick, Johnston, sophomore Kristen Lonergan and freshman Kendra Basner are hoping that will change soon. There are two lacrosse players, however, who are already well known for their athletic endeavors in other Duke sports.
One of them is freshman basketball phenom Payton Black. While Black has the talent to be a top collegiate lacrosse player-she was named honorable mention All-American her senior year of high school-she has not yet told Kimel if she will play this season after basketball.
The other well-known athlete is junior field hockey star Jodie Taylor. Taylor, who was actually recruited more for lacrosse than field hockey coming out of high school, has made a definite commitment to Kimel and the Blue Devils. Kimel says Taylor will have some catching up to do in lacrosse, but she expects her to contribute both with her athleticism and experience at playing a Division I sport.
"I'm really excited about just going out there and playing," Taylor said. "I remember how much fun it was in high school."
Kimel is also expecting a lot out of her freshmen. Since she was hired in December, she had little time for recruiting. Still, she managed to entice three top players to Durham with the promise they would have a lot of playing time at a top university, while being able to build a successful program. Three other freshmen joined the team out of tryouts as walk-ons.
"When we brought them in, we told them when you come in and play for us, you're going to have to come in as a junior," Kimel said. "You're not going to be able to make freshman mistakes."
One of the toughest hurdles the team will face this year is a lack of experience. Basner said in many ways the team is composed of all freshmen. Some may consider that a negative, but Basner thinks the lack of experience has brought the team together.
"We haven't even chosen captains," she said. "We all look to each other since there is no one to look to. We all have been leaning on each other. When the season starts, we'll all be able to play together as a team because we have to rely on everyone."
For the team's first season, Kimel has put together a schedule that she considers to be well-balanced. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, the Atlantic Coast Conference contains two of the nation's best women's lacrosse programs in Virginia and Maryland. Maryland is the defending national champion, and the Terps only lost one starter from last year's team. The Terrapins are the second team the Blue Devils face this year, and it is a contest Kimel expects to be a learning experience.
Outside of five teams ranked in the Top 25, the Blue Devils are facing a number of first-year or young programs. Kimel said Duke is capable of defeating every one of those young teams. She also hopes that when the season is over, the Blue Devils will at least have won as many games as they lost.
"I think that's setting a pretty high standard for us," Kimel said. "I think athletic-wise and talent-wise, we are right with some of the other teams out there. But those teams have some experience over us, and a lot of times you win and lose games on experience. I think that if we can reach .500, that will be like winning the national championship."
Kimel thinks that in four years, the team may be capable of making the NCAA Tournament, which currently only has six teams. She thinks that when this year's freshmen are seniors, the possible blowouts against Maryland and Virginia may go in favor of the Blue Devils.
Her players agree with their coaches' assessment. Johnston said a lot of high school recruits that were once solely interested in a Maryland-caliber team are already looking to come down to Durham. What they will find if they visit is a team dedicated to starting another successful Duke varsity sport.
"I think two years from now we could be playing in the tournament," Meyercord said. "We're good now, and the only thing we're lacking is experience. Two years, from now, our seniors will have played for two years.
"We already have great coaching. We already have great talent. Everything is just going to get stronger."
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