Many times, the polls must find a little something to separate two otherwise evenly matched teams. In the case of the seventh-ranked men's lacrosse team and No. 6 Maryland, the difference was Duke's inexperience and youth.
The Blue Devils managed to keep it close for three quarters of Saturday's season opener at Duke Lacrosse Stadium. In the end, Maryland's experience prevailed.
For the past eight seasons, it has been a tradition of sorts for Duke to open up its season against Maryland. The Duke fans were not enough, however, to prevent Maryland (2-0, 1-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) from handing Duke (0-1, 0-1) a 15-9 loss in this year's season opener. This was the eighth-straight time Duke has opened its season against the Terps, losing five of the eight.
Two minutes and 25 seconds into the fourth quarter, Maryland expanded the lead it had held since the end of the second quarter when midfielder Brain Zeller got the ball past senior goalie Craig Seyffer to make the score 11-8. When Duke freshman midfielder Chris Mangum scored 38 seconds later at 12:35, the Blue Devils felt that they had enough time to make their move and win the game.
"Maryland's advantage over us this year came in that they returned a veteran team with a lot of seniors and leadership," Duke coach Mike Pressler said. "We were in a position to win when we got the score to 11-9 in the fourth quarter. That could have been the turning point, but that's when our inexperience and youth showed and hurt us the most."
Mangum's goal would be the last of the game for the Blue Devils as they allowed Maryland to record the final four goals of the game.
Duke's coaching staff, however, didn't quit without attempting to slow the Terps. Even before Saturday's game, there had been debate as to which goalie would start for the Blue Devils after the graduation of All-American Joe Kirmser. After Maryland scored once again to make the score 12-9, Pressler decided to replace Seyffer with freshman Matt Breslin.
"Craig played pretty well for most of the game," Pressler said. "At 12-9 I decided to change goalies, not because Craig wasn't playing well, but because we needed someone new to provide a spark."
Once again, the team's overall inexperience came into play as Breslin allowed three goals in the final 11:37 of the game. Seyffer and Breslin's performances in the goal cage, however, were not the only place the Blue Devils showed early season weaknesses.
"I think that we were ready to play, but we just made a lot of mistakes," junior midfielder Adam Dretler said. "The loss had just as much to do with how we played. We hurt ourselves just as much as they beat us, but all our mistakes are things we can correct."
The Blue Devils will get the chance to correct these mistakes when they face Boston College at home this Wednesday.
"The one positive thing is that we don't have to wait too long before we play again so we can correct our mistakes as soon as possible," Dretler said. "Between now and Wednesday, we need to look closely at what went wrong. But we can't dwell on this game too long. Anyway, we will have a chance to play [Maryland] again later in the season."
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