For the first few games of this year's lacrosse season, freshman Kelly Dirks was just one of many players on the team from the state of Maryland.
Despite being a three-time high school All-American, Dirks had yet to perform up to her coach's and her own expectations.
After a few meetings with coach Kerstin Kimel and a new mindset, the freshman is becoming one of the most valuable players on this year's third-ranked squad.
The advice that seemed to make the difference? You play just like you practice, one of the oldest adages in sports lingo.
"I guess that at the beginning I was just sitting back and watching everyone else, maybe playing too much like a freshman," Dirks said. "I talked to Kerstin and gained some confidence after playing in a few games. I think that with the preseason lasting so long, I just didn't see the end of the tunnel or have the drive I needed. I have never been like that, but luckily, Coach kind of kicked me in the butt."
Kimel knew that the team needed Dirks to play with intensity and confidence for the offense to perform at its best. Therefore, she put her best effort into jumpstarting the freshman.
"I felt like she was a little soft at the start," Kimel said. "She has a lot of talent, but I thought at practice-mentally and physically-she was not being very tough. We sat down and had a really honest talk, and she certainly responded. I thought she handled everything with a lot of maturity and determination. Since then, she has really been on track."
The change in Dirks was no more evident than when her team traveled to face rival Georgetown a month ago. Duke trailed for most of the game, including a 7-3 deficit late in the second half. The Blue Devils rallied to close the Hoyas' advantage to one at 9-8.
This is the point in a comeback when many teams run out of gas. Fortunately for Duke, Dirks, who ended up scoring five times in the game, had just a bit more left in the tank. With 1:29 remaining in the contest, she converted on a free position shot to knot the score at nine.
As time ran down, Dirks received the ball again with less than 15 seconds to play. She drove toward the net, split a double team and dribbled a tough shot past the Georgetown goalie with only eight ticks left, giving the Blue Devils a 10-9 victory.
"She got a shot off, and it wasn't even a great shot, but it found its way in," Kimel said of Dirks' game-winner. "To have the ball in her stick with only seconds left, and to have the guts and the courage to take the ball through a defense that had slowed us all day and take the final shot. That says a lot about her and how far she has come this year."
Before the trip to Washington D.C., Dirks' play was inconsistent at best. She was held scoreless in three of the team's first four games, but she led Duke with four goals, her first of the season, against Towson.
This was not the kind of production Dirks, a three-time high school All-American, was used to putting out. In her senior season alone, she scored 80 goals and dished out 58 assists. But that was high school.
Dirks came to find out that the college game was much more physical and that the level of competition here was not even comparable to what she had seen one year earlier. She knew she could not remain flaccid if she wanted to make a positive impact on her team.
"I knew that I wanted to be a better player, and I wanted our team to be better," Dirks said. "I knew I had to start practicing a lot harder."
Dirks followed up her performance against Georgetown by netting three goals versus Johns Hopkins the next day. After being held scoreless once again by North Carolina, it appeared as if Dirks was slumping once more.
Instead, the freshman proved that her lesson had been learned, as she matched her season high with five goals in an 11-8 win over William & Mary.
"[Performing well at this level] shows a lot of poise and that was very evident against Georgetown, especially," Kimel said. "Our team did not play that well, but Kelly remained very vocal and emotional the whole game."
The freshman, boosted by scoring five of the Duke's 10 goals against Georgetown, is second on the team in goals, shooting an impressive 45 percent, and has led the team in scoring four times already.
"We recruited Kelly because she is a proven scorer, and that's the role we wanted her to fill," Kimel said. "We wanted someone who could complement Tricia Martin, so that Tricia would not feel the weight of having to do the bulk of the scoring for us."
Dirks has certainly lessened the strain on Martin's shoulders this season, as the two are nearly even in goals scored. When the defense focuses its attention on Martin, Dirks is free to attack the net.
While Dirks has helped Martin in this respect, her teammate is one of many upperclassmen on the team that helped this freshman class adjust to lacrosse at the college level.
"We have some great leaders on our team," Dirks said. "Tricia is a great leader; she'll pull you to the side and discreetly tell you what you should be doing or how to improve something."
Although this advice during the game is essential, the "help" that Dirks received in practice may leave its mark even longer.
"They kind of beat us up a little bit," Dirks said of the team's veterans. "College is a lot more physical, and it's hard to get used to at first, getting bumped around. But that makes us a lot stronger in the games."
As Duke comes down the home stretch this season, it knows that Dirks' play is key to a strong tournament. While Dirks would like to put together a few more five-goal games, she'd settle for a deep postseason run instead.
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