It's never too early to make a statement.
Although the women's lacrosse season is barely half over, third-ranked Duke will be looking to make a case for postseason play this weekend as it hosts No. 10 William & Mary, Sunday at 1 p.m.
While Duke (7-2) made its presence felt in its season opener by upending then top-ranked Maryland, the Blue Devils have dropped two games since to elite teams, a 16-12 loss to No. 2 Princeton and Wednesday night's 9-6 loss in Chapel Hill to the top-ranked Tar Heels.
Despite the letdown that could come following the UNC loss, Duke's desire to post another quality win, along with last year's 9-8 loss at William & Mary, should give the Blue Devils plenty of motivation against the Tribe.
"William & Mary is always a top program and considering that we lost to them last year by one goal, I don't think it will be hard for us to get up for this game," Duke coach Kerstin Kimel said. "If anything, I think the girls are going to be really up to play this game."
The Tribe comes into the weekend sporting a less-than-impressive 1-5 record, but make no mistake, this team is still very dangerous. Those five losses have come against Princeton, No. 5 Virginia, No. 6 Loyola, No. 8 James Madison and No. 9 Georgetown. It's one win was an 8-6 decision over No. 11 Penn State.
"They've only beaten one team, but they've played a brutal schedule that has no guaranteed W's on it," Kimel said. "They are dangerous now because they desperately need a win."
While William & Mary is searching for a win to keep its postseason hopes alive, Duke would like a quality nonconference win to further bolster its own NCAA Tournament hopes.
"William & Mary is in the Colonial Athletic Conference, which is extremely competitive in lacrosse and we always want to show our strength out of conference," Kimel said. "The [Atlantic Coast Conference] is the smallest conference but probably the most competitive, while the CAC has more teams but is highly competitive as well."
Aside from racking up another important win, Sunday's game also provides the Blue Devils an opportunity to work on some of the things that failed them in the loss to North Carolina, in which they led 6-4 with just over 15 minutes remaining.
"We really need to learn from the mistakes we made in [Wednesday] night's game, and that was primarily in midfield transition," Kimel said. "We had a great defensive effort and despite not showing much discipline, our offense did a good job down there. But for us to play at NCAA Tournament level, we need to improve our play at the midfield."
And while UNC was the enemy earlier this week, it could become Duke's biggest ally this weekend as the Tribe will play at Chapel Hill Saturday afternoon. Should the Tar Heels prevail as expected, that could leave William & Mary not only tired from the game, but broken from the loss as well. Or maybe not.
"Part of me says the they'll be tired after playing UNC, but part of me is nervous that if they get beat by Carolina, they'll be even more desperate for a win," Kimel said.
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