The women's lacrosse team did its best impersonation of Charles Barkley last night against Virginia Tech, rebounding with a vengeance from its loss at the hands of Yale three days ago.
No. 3 Duke (10-3) used a 13-3 mid-game run to post an explosive 21-10 win over the Hokies (7-5) at the Duke Lacrosse Stadium.
"I'm really pleased with how hard we worked," coach Kerstin Kimel said. "This is just the momentum we needed going into the weekend."
Duke received goals from 11 different players on the night, led by Claire Finn with four. Its 21 goals is the most scored in the program's history.
Va. Tech netted the opening goal of the night, taking a 1-0 lead with 26:36 to play in the first half. Duke answered on a score by Finn 38 seconds later to tie the contest at 1-1.
After the Hokies knotted the score at 3-3 with 17:06 remaining in the first half, Duke dominated the next 21:11 en route to building a 16-6 advantage.
"Overall, I think it was really important for us just to go out there and play our game," Kimel said. "A tough loss like Yale can be a huge motivating factor. These guys showed up tonight very prepared to play."
Tricia Martin sparked the run, finding
Va. Tech continued to hang around at intermission, trailing only 11-6, but Duke put the game away early in the second stanza, executing its offense to near perfection.
Kate Soulier located Claire Sullivan on a cut to the net for the Blue Devils' first goal of the half. Sullivan then took the role of passer, finding Finn open in front of the net after pressure forced a bad pass from the Va. Tech goalie.
A score by Amy Noble and two by Dirks capped the run, as Duke switched to cruise control for the final twenty minutes.
"[The big lead] really allowed us to work on some things in the second half," Kimel said. "It was good to be able to really practice our motion offense and gain some confidence with it. "
The Blue Devils knew it was imperative to have a strong performance last night with the ACC tournament right around the corner. Coming off a game in which it shot just 14 percent, Duke turned things around, connecting on 21 of 36 shots.
"Considering how poorly we shot over the weekend, I'm pretty happy," Kimel said. "Our offense was working really hard off the ball, and we shot the ball well. We were playing against two good goalies."
Instead of forcing shots on the offensive end, the Blue Devils moved the ball around and cut to the net for easy looks, converting when they had the opportunity.
"This game was huge for our attack," Meghan McLaughlin said. "This was really a confidence booster, which was what we needed.... It was great that our attack could take some of the pressure off the defense tonight."
The Duke attack was also sparked by the return of Courtney Rodgers, who had missed the last five games with mononucleosis. She dished out a team-high three assists and scored one goal of her own.
"Courtney is not at 100 percent quite yet," Kimel said. "Her greatest strength is that she is a really steady player. She doesn't turn the ball over, she makes great passes, she is a solid defender and she makes good decisions. Going into this weekend and the rest of the season, she will be key for us."
The Blue Devils to travel to Chapel Hill Saturday afternoon to take on Virginia in search of their first ACC tournament victory.
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