Going into the NCAA tournament with only three losses--two of which came to top-ranked Maryland-- and competing as the tourney's second seed, the Duke women's lacrosse team clearly understood that a second Final Four in school history was well within its reach.
However, after defeating Temple decisively one week ago in the opening round, this opportunity was snatched away from the Blue Devils (15-4) last Sunday at Koskinen Stadium. Another perennial power from the Old Line State, eighth-seeded Loyola (15-4), scored four goals at the beginning of the second half and held on to win a heart-thumping 7-6 battle over the Blue Devils to advance to the round of eight, while Duke will be left at home wondering what might have been.
The manner in which Duke finally succumbed was was heart-breaking for the home crowd. Attempting to erase a four-goal deficit midway through the second half, Duke trimmed the Greyhounds' lead to 7-6 and seemed to tie the game when leading scorer Kate Kaiser hurled the ball through the net with 7:42 remaining. However, one of the NCAA officials disqualified the goal, ruling that Kaiser had entered the crease when taking the shot. The Blue Devils had a few other chances to score during the game's waning minutes, but none of these opportunities were as close as Kaiser's. The game concluded with Loyola goalie Tricia Dabrowski running out the clock by circling her net as time expired.
Needless to say, Kaiser showed her displeasure with the controversial ruling and subsequent outcome in her post-game comments.
"I shot the ball, it went in, and then [a Loyola player] pushed me and I fell," a distraught Kaiser explained as she held back tears. "When I fell, they called me in the crease after the ball was in."
Duke coach Kerstin Kimel agreed with her leading scorer, noting that the implications of the ruling were back-breaking for the Blue Devils.
"In a situation like that, when it's been back-and-forth for the middle third of the half and then [the official] disallows a goal and our player ends up on the ground, it changes the momentum completely," Kimel said. "We felt like that was our chance."
While Kimel's disappointment was obvious after the game, her mood was likely quite different halfway through the contest. In a nip-and-tuck first half, Duke rebounded from a slow start, scoring two goals in the final six minutes to cling to a 4-3 lead over the Greyhounds. Kelly Dirks tied the game at the six-minute mark with a score at point-blank range and freshman Lauren Kickham followed up the senior's goal with one of her own only 21 seconds later.
The Blue Devils came out flat in the second half, though, while Loyola seemed to be the team poised for victory. Midfielder Suzanne Eyler commenced the Greyhound run with a goal at 28:48 and soon after, attacker Kristy Warnock scored, allowing Loyola to retake the lead, 5-4. Minutes later, senior Megan Santacroce recorded her second goal of the game attacker Stacy Morlang increased the Greyhounds' growing lead to 7-4 with 19:44 remaining.
"I think we were expecting a victory [at that point], but we also knew that Duke was a team that could come back," Santacroce said. "Both teams were playing with such heart that we knew it would end up being a close game."
Santacroce's instincts about an eminent Duke comeback were correct. Sensing the Blue Devils' life-or-death situation, Kaiser stopped the bleeding at the 16:28 mark with a momentum-changing goal that put Duke within two. Less than two minutes later, sophomore Lauren Gallagher connected on a free-position shot to cut Loyola's lead to 7-6 with 14:32 left on the clock.
Then, after seven more minutes of closely contested action, Kaiser drove toward the net in what turned out to be the decisive, and of course, most controversial play of the game. Loyola coach Diane Geppi-Aikens commented after the contest that, contrary to the opinion of the Blue Devils, the questionable encroachment call on Kaiser did not solely decide the outcome of the matchup.
"You like to believe if you lose that one play makes a difference. To be quite honest...a lot of those plays could have gone either way," Geppi-Aikens said. "There were things that were happening to both sides from the first second that whistle blew and I don't believe for one second that one particular play made a difference in the outcome. I'd have to majorly differ about not only this game, but as a coaching philosophy, that one play is going to make a difference in a game. I think that's a travesty to your team and how hard they played."
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