About a year ago, after watching her team lose its first-ever NCAA tournament game to Temple, Kerstin Kimel returned to her house, sat down at the kitchen table and came up with a goal for this season.
"We should set our sights on the Final Four," she said of her women's lacrosse team. "We may not get there, but it should be a goal and I think it's attainable."
The first step for Duke in reaching that goal is this weekend's ACC tournament, in many ways a preview of the NCAA Final Four itself. Along with the fifth-ranked Blue Devils (9-3), there's top-ranked Maryland (13-0), No. 2 Virginia (10-3) and sixth-ranked North Carolina (7-4).
Duke tied with the Cavaliers and Tar Heels in ACC play during the season with a 1-2 mark, but the Blue Devils were seeded second and face third-place Virginia tomorrow at 3 p.m. in Chapel Hill at Henry Stadium.
"I really believe that anything's possible," Kimel said. "We're a young team. With a young team, sometimes you don't know exactly what you're going to get. I do know that we're going to be ready this weekend."
While Duke was able to avoid the Terps, who outscored conference opponents 34-15 in three games, for at least one day, the Blue Devils have a large enough foe to conquer in Virginia.
Duke, after all, has yet to win an ACC tournament game in its brief four-year existence and must defeat the second-ranked team in the country to do so.
Duke hasn't beaten the Cavaliers in five career tries, including a 15-9 loss in Charlottesville two weeks ago. In that contest, Virginia broke open a 4-3 game with three straight goals and rattled off five of six in the second half to ease to the win.
"I just think that we're going to be a little bit better prepared for them," Kimel said. "Virginia's game is very similar to ours. We play up tempo with pressure defense. We try to dominate the 50-50 balls that are on the ground. The team that is willing to play that game at a higher level is the team that's going to win."
The Cavaliers' balanced scoring attack prevailed in the first meeting, as three players recorded hat tricks for Virginia. Balance appears to be one of the keys for the Cavs, as none of their players rank in the top six in the league in scoring. That list is composed of Duke's Tricia Martin and Kelly Dirks along with four players from Maryland.
Certainly if the Blue Devils make it to Sunday's final against the Terps, they'll have a number of problems to worry about in addition to Maryland's top scorers. At least for now, though, earning their first tournament victory and finally beating Virginia is enough to focus on.
"I think our goal, in all honesty, is to get to Sunday," Kimel said. "One of our goals at the start of the season was to get ourselves into the ACC championship game. If we can do that, we can get to the Final Four."
And to get to the Final Four, a strong showing this weekend wouldn't hurt. The top four seeds in the NCAAs earn a coveted first-round bye and extra rest before the quarterfinals.
At No. 5, Duke is on the bubble for one of those byes and in need of a strong showing this weekend to move into the top four.
"It's really, really hard to say where we're going to be at this point," Kimel said. "It's really going to be up in the air until the very end.
"One of the things we've done really well is to be focused on ourself. We feel if we can go out and play our game for 60 minutes, then we will be successful. That's been our greatest strength. Going into playing Virginia, that's going to be our same approach."
Note: Tickets for tomorrow's game will be on sale for $3 for adults and $2 for students with valid ID, senior citizens and children under 18.... Sunday's championship game will be played at 1 p.m.
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