Men's, women's lacrosse lose, stay on NCAA bubble

A late-game goal from Dartmouth's Jan Newitt and a pair of saves from the Big Green goalie in the final minute of play gave Duke a 6-5 loss Friday night in Hanover, N.H. "I think it was one of the more difficult and disappointing losses for us because of the way that we lost the game," coach Kerstin Kimel said. "We probably played our best half of defense [of the season] in the second half. We held their top two scorers to one goal, but unfortunately the one goal we gave up was their winning goal." The No. 7 Blue Devils (8-7), fresh off a five-goal win over No. 14 James Madison, played Dartmouth (10-4) tight the entire game. Duke started off with goals from Cheryl Lynn Horton and senior Kelly Dirks to give the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead. Dartmouth responded with four goals in just over two minutes of play to take a two-goal advantage of its own. Duke slowly came back, as goals by junior Erin O'Shaughnessy, Dirks and Lauren Gallagher returned the lead to the Blue Devils with 15:11 remaining. Just four minutes later, the Big Green knotted the game at five setting the stage for Newitt's game-winning goal with 1:07 left in regulation. "We had a critical turnover and they ran down and scored," Kimel said. "They were definitely motivated. They came right at us, they pressured us, and they face-guarded Gallagher." Duke won the ensuing draw and had two shots on goal from Horton and Dirks, but Dartmouth's goalie stopped both attempts en route to her 12 saves on the day. All-ACC goalie and Tewaarton candidate, Kristen Foster had 11 saves of her own, raising her season total to 136. Gallagher now leads the team in goals with 32, while Dirks remained close behind with 31 on the season. Although a 12-7 win over James Madison earlier in the week may have helped clinch the Blue Devils' chances of qualifying for the 16-team NCAA tournament, Kimel admitted she did not know how the loss to Dartmouth would affect their ranking. A win this weekend against No. 22 Penn would solidify Duke's bid. "We really need to be in the top 13, and if we're not we won't get in," Kimel said. "If we beat Penn--and assuming that nobody else really has a big win or loss--we should be okay."