In attempting to build the young women's lacrosse program into a future national power, coach Kerstin Kimel and the Blue Devils have begun their ascent by scheduling games against schools already among the nation's elite.
This past week, Duke (3-3) competed against two of the best, Dartmouth and Georgetown, ranked fifth and sixth, respectively. The Blue Devils played well in spurts against each, but lost 12-6 to the Hoyas (2-2) and 14-10 to Dartmouth (1-0).
"A lot of what we've been doing is comparing our results from this year to last year," junior Karen Sutton said. "I think we're pleased with the progress."
Duke's progress was hard to measure from the outset in its game at Georgetown last Saturday. The Hoyas jumped out early with five quick goals in the first 13 minutes. Stacy Duca and Lauren Hilsky each posted two goals apiece in the run, with the last two coming within a span of just nine seconds.
"A few of our coaches' tactics we didn't really follow," Sutton said. "Everybody was looking at themselves as individuals and we didn't play together."
Eleven seconds after Duca's second goal, sophomore Kendra Basner finally put Duke on the board straight off of the midfield draw. Freshman Tricia Martin followed with a goal from sophomore Meghan McLaughlin to cut Georgetown's lead to 5-2.
Junior Lorrie Meyercord scored late in the first half off of a feed from junior Amy Murnick, but Duke still went into halftime down 7-3.
In the second half, neither team ran off more than two goals in a row. The Hoyas opened up with a pair of goals to stretch their lead to 9-3 before Murnick and junior Heather Keeney scored to bring Duke within four with 14:38 left in the game. Duca followed with her fifth goal of the game before freshman Becky Morris closed out the Blue Devils' scoring on a tally at 9:39.
Overall for the contest, Georgetown outshot Duke 21-19 with freshman goalie Shannon Chaney registering four saves for the Blue Devils.
"Against Georgetown we started out under our expectations," Sutton said. "Coming out of there, we left our mark on the field."
Duke left an early mark in Thursday's loss to Dartmouth. The Blue Devils stormed out to a 7-3 lead in the first half before the Big Green rallied for eight unanswered goals to take control of the game.
Duke was looking to take advantage early on of the fact that this was Dartmouth's first game of the year. But after surrendering seven goals in the first 28 minutes, the Big Green only yielded three tallies in the final 32 minutes of play.
"I think we really scared [Dartmouth] in the beginning," Sutton said. "They started realizing some of our flaws on the field and then they started playing really well."
Dartmouth, led by hat tricks from Emily Fenwick and Kim Mendelson, outscored Duke 9-3 in the second half and outshot the Blue Devils overall 28-20 for the game.
The Blue Devils were led by two goals apiece from Sutton and McLaughlin. Martin's goal at the 14:53 mark of the second half broke Dartmouth's eight-goal run, but Duke was unable to climb any closer.
As a result, the Blue Devils fell to .500 for the first time all year. But with nine games left on the season, Duke has already equalled last season's win total with its three losses coming against last week's fifth- and sixth-ranked foes and No. 1 Maryland.
"After the Dartmouth game, we really feel confident going into the next nine games," Sutton said. "It wouldn't be bad if we had a few more wins, but we don't see it as a negative that we're 3-3. I think we're going to get a lot more wins the rest of the year."
Duke returns to the field Tuesday for a 4 p.m. matchup with Towson State at the Duke Lacrosse Stadium.
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