The No. 7 men's lacrosse team opened its ACC schedule Sunday afternoon with a 13-7 loss to No. 5 Maryland. The Terrapins dominated the Blue Devils throughout much of the game which was played at Maryland's Artificial Turf Facility.
Duke came out aggressive and mounted a 3-1 edge before coming unraveled offensively. With Duke leading 4-2 the Terrapins quickly turned the momentum of the game in their favor as they went on to score 11 unanswered goals.
"I think as much as I want to give Maryland some credit for that, it was our own doing," Duke head coach Mike Pressler said. "When we got down by a few goals we got out of our plan offensively. We got out of sink. We got very selfish with the ball."
Of the 11 goals, five of those tallies came within the span of eight minutes in the second quarter. The Terps held a 7-4 half-time advantage as the Blue Devils badly needed a chance to regroup.
Duke was able to make some defensive adjustments to slow the pace of the Maryland's attack, but the Terps were still able to tally six second-half goals.
Maryland's goalie Danny McCormick shut out the Blue Devils for a 38 minute stretch spanning from the beginning of the second quarter to the final minutes of the game. The keeper had a career-high 17 saves on the afternoon.
"I thought our defense was really impressive," Maryland head coach Dave Cottle said. "McCormick was excellent in goal."
Pressler blamed his offense's inability to connect on scoring opportunities as a central factor in the prolonged drought.
"Our first line attack and middies went 5-for-40 shooting," Pressler said. "You are not going to beat anybody with that type of shooting percentage."
Maryland's offensive success was partially due to its ability to capitalize on the man advantages that resulted from Duke penalties. The Terps scored on four of six such opportunities while Duke was only able to connect on one man-up chance.
"When Dan LaMonica and Brian Hunt play the way they did, it really gives us a big lift on the man-up," Cottle said.
LaMonica and Hunt each had a hat trick for the Maryland squad and Brian Moran added a pair of goals. The Terrapin team took 35 shots, connecting on 37 percent of their opportunities.
"It was more our blunders on defense," Pressler said. "We made too many mistakes and gave them better shots then they deserved."
Once the outcome of the game was already decided, Kevin Brennan added a pair of goals for the Blue Devils to record a hat trick on the afternoon. The Duke midfielder also led the team with six shots on goal.
"There is a lot of lacrosse left in the season," Pressler said. "We got a good team here and are going to rebound and get this going again."
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