The women's lacrosse team continued to make strides in Friday's match against William & Mary, but the Blue Devils failed to pick up a win for the ninth time in their inaugural season as they lost to the Tribe 14-9.
Duke (2-9) jumped out to a quick 5-2 lead in the first half behind the play of freshman attacker Payton Black. But Duke saw its lead and its momentum slip away, as the Tribe tied the score by the end of the half and outscored Duke 8-3 in the second stanza.
"One think that we had talked about is playing with emotion," Blue Devil head coach Kirsten Kimel said. "We got out there and scored the first couple of goals, and we felt good about ourselves. But we couldn't maintain that emotion because of our depth."
As the Blue Devils tired, William & Mary (3-4) was able to capitalize. The Blue Devils turned the ball over more than twice as often as the Tribe, and many of these turnovers led to fast-break goals for William & Mary.
The Tribe set this tone early in the game, as Mandy Longstreth picked up a loose ball and passed long to Lindsey Rademaker, who was left one-on-one with Duke goalie Natalie Lamarque. Rademaker easily beat Lamarque for the Tribe's first goal of the game.
Rademaker led the Tribe with three goals in the game.
But the Blue Devils answered the call with Black, who also recorded a hat trick in the game. After Duke took the lead at 3-2, Black took control of the game. Black, who was also named to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference freshman team as a basketball forward, used some of her post moves to score over the William & Mary defense.
With 15 minutes left in the half, Black picked up a ground ball in front of the Tribe goal and managed to score despite the myriad of defenders trying to displace the ball. Four minutes later, Black again scooped up the ball from a scrum in front of the Tribe net, and she managed to put the biscuit in the basket.
"There's not too many 6-foot-4 lacrosse players, so we just post her up," Kimel said. "Payton's experience as a Division I athlete really showed today because she stuck with the ball. She just kept going while some of the other players sort of stopped while waiting for a [foul] call."
But just as the Blue Devils opened their lead to 5-2, Wiliam and Mary came storming back, as the Tribe scored three unanswered goals in a three-minute span. Dani Vissers goal with 1:48 left in the half knotted the score at five.
Duke came right back, as sophomore Amy Murnick scooped up a ground ball on defense and sprinted the length of the field to beat Tribe goalie Lisa Dixon. But William & Mary retaliated with six seconds left in the half, as a Vissers' shot found the back of the net.
The second half was all William & Mary, though. Senior Kristin Reily assisted Amy Giello four minutes into the second stanza and then scored a goal of her own two minutes later.
Black answered with her third goal, but the Tribe then put together another run-scoring five of the next six goals to build an insurmountable lead.
"We never got off the bus until 15 minutes into the game," Tribe coach Feffie Barnhill said. "It's not that we were looking past Duke, but we just didn't get ourselves ready to play. But we turned it around and played better in the second half.
"The biggest difference in all of our goals was speed at the midfield. That and basic ball control. We controled the ball a lot more in the second half."
The Tribe was able to take advantage of the Blue Devils' lack of players, as William & Mary freely substituted throughout the game while Duke was limited to only a few reserves. Combined with the Blue Devils' lack of reserves was their dearth of experience. This made it hard for the Blue Devils to respond to William & Mary's rallies.
"We were psyched up and playing well at the beginning," Murnick said. "But then things stopped working, and we panicked. We started the game doing what we're capable of doing every game, but we couldn't hold onto it."
Kimel attributed the Tribe's success to their fresh legs.
"They were able to use a lot of their bench in the second half," she said. "And we were just tired. And because of the fatigue, we weren't the first to the ground balls. The little mistakes cost us, but I can't be dissapointed."
Duke's next game is next Satuday, as it faces ACC rival Virginia in the second half of a lacrossse doubleheader. The men's lacrosse team takes on the top-ranked Cavaliers at 1 p.m., and the women's game follows at 3:30.
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