The women's lacrosse team notched an impressive prelude to its season by finishing unbeaten at 6-0-2 in the South of the Border Lacrosse Tournament this weekend. The tournament, which was hosted by both Duke and North Carolina, featured 26 collegiate teams from across the country, including a number of perennially ranked programs.
The contests do not count towards the Blue Devils' season record, but serve as a final, competitive preparation for their regular season. Each game consisted of a single half with a 30-minute running clock and no overtime session, but otherwise game conditions applied.
"It's great preparation for the season because it allows you to finally scrimmage because we don't have enough people to scrimmage with two full teams in practice," Duke coach Kerstin Kimel said. "It allows us the opportunity to run some things and try some things that we don't want to try for the first time in our game on Tuesday."
Duke started things off early on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. and didn't finish the last of its five matches until almost five in the afternoon. The long day proved fruitful as the Blue Devils won their first four matches against Johns Hopkins, the Chesapeake Lacrosse Club, Hofstra and Princeton before finishing in a tie with Delaware. The win over traditionally strong Princeton was the highlight of the tournament for the young Duke squad.
"I don't know if Princeton was out there fully loaded, but I think that they were," Kimel said. "And while we won, what is important is that we played well and that the girls gain confidence. We don't want them getting too excited because it is preseason and we would have had to play another half."
Sunday, the Blue Devils were back on the West Campus turf fields bright and early for a triple-header. Duke emerged victorious over Notre Dame and Colgate before rallying for a tie against Pennsylvania. The Blue Devils fell behind Penn early, first 2-0, then 3-1, before freshman Tricia Martin pulled Duke to within one at 3-2 with 3:18 to go with her second goal of the game. Junior tri-captian Heather Keeney completed the comeback with a charging goal with just over a minute remaining, ending the game in a 3-3 tie.
The rally against Penn completed a weekend that saw the Blue Devils play more fluid and cohesive lacrosse than most would have expected from the second-year program.
"I felt really good out there-I felt like we were connecting," said sophomore Megan McLaughlin, last year's leading goal-scorer. "I felt like our defense was strong. I still feel like we have a lot work on as far as our attacking unit. But it was definitely a positive experience."
While the undefeated record may impress people outside the program, Kimel was most pleased by the level of play that her Blue Devils maintained throughout all eight games.
"Did we play well? Yes, we played very well," she said. "I wanted to play well, which is important, but I wasn't concerned with winning and losing as much as I was that we worked on things we need to work on.
"I think the thing that I was most pleased with, being that we're a young team, you worry about so many things other than strategy-all they are mentally ready to play and that sort of thing. And I'm really happy with them because our captains, and our overall team has done a great job of preparing themselves for every game, while the coaching staff is really kind of concerned with running the tournament."
Kimel added that she felt the tournament itself was a rousing success. The first-time event was modeled after a similar tournament that is traditionally hosted by William and Mary. Duke and UNC took advantage of more temperate weather conditions to host the tournament and allow teams like themselves with seasons that start earlier than their northern counterparts to have a competitive preseason event.
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