It's not how you start, it's how you finish.
No. 13 Harvard (5-1) threatened to spoil Senior Day for the fifth-ranked Blue Devils and jumped out to a quick two-goal lead.
But a punishing defense and fresh legs off the Duke (7-2) bench proved to be too much in the end for the Crimson to overcome, as Duke went on to win the game 14-8.
After the Crimson's red-hot start, Duke settled in and reeled off a 10-2 run to give the Blue Devils a 10-4 lead with 5:02 remaining in the third quarter. T.J. Durnan's goal with 1:58 left in the first quarter gave Duke its first lead at 3-2. Durnan and Jared Frood were instrumental in the run, combining to score six goals during the stretch.
"We knew going in, it was going to be a challenge," Harvard coach Scott Anderson said. "One thing that they have and that is a strength for them is that they're a big, strong physical team. And that does wear on you as the game goes on.
"Some of the goals that they scored were people
While most teams would have been worried about such a slow start, it was almost expected from the Blue Devils standpoint.
"The way the year has been going, yeah, we sometimes do expect to get behind on one or two goals," Stephen Card jokingly said. "No, we didn't expect that. We were really fired up for this, being Senior Day and all. Everyone was ready, it was just a couple of weird goals right off the bat. We didn't go when we should have. We know we can improve, but we felt it was a strong effort."
The Crimson battled back to get as close as three, when Matt Primm scored on a man-advantage to trim the Duke lead to 11-8 with 13:18 remaining in the game. However, Duke countered with three consecutive goals as Chris Kakel, Greg Patchak and Nick Hartofilis each found the back of the net for the Blue Devils. Frood assisted on two of those goals.
Harvard controlled the tempo of the game early, but because of Duke's deep bench, it was only a matter of time before the previously undefeated Crimson squad wore down.
"They didn't play a lot of people today," Duke coach Mike Pressler said. "It was a humid day. They were coming from Boston and we've been down here a little bit. We played a lot more people and I think in the second half that proved to be a difference. We kind of wore them down."
Duke's victory extended its winning streak to four games. Three of those wins have come against previously undefeated teams, and all four opponents were ranked in the top 20 nationally.
"It's a big win," Pressler said. "It's been the toughest two weeks that I've ever put together here. We've beaten Carolina, Georgetown, UMBC and Harvard in a two-week period and that's very difficult.
"You only do that if you do that at home, which we did, and if you have a senior-laden team, which we are."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.