The Duke women’s lacrosse team opens its 2005 campaign at Koskinen Stadium this weekend with a pair of contests against Duquesne Friday and Denver Sunday.
Against these unranked opponents, head coach Kerstin Kimel said she would like to use the games to experiment with various line-ups and offensive schemes. She wants to develop a rotation that takes advantage of the team’s deep bench this season and indicated that many of the team’s freshmen are likely to see action this weekend.
“We have 11 freshmen, and a lot of them will help us,” Kimel said. “Philosophically I've always wanted to have a bigger team that will allow us to play as many kids as possible—maybe 18 to 22 kids per game—to have the rotation to play that up-tempo style but with the discipline and the ability to pull back and run a set offense when we need to. With this group we have that.”
Among the freshmen likely to receive playing time this weekend are midfielder Jess Adam, defender Kerry Costello, attacker Caroline Cryer and midfielder Kimberly Pastrana.
Still, central to the Blue Devils’ success will be junior attack Katie Chrest and junior goalkeeper Megan Huether, both of whom were recently named to the 2005 Tewaaraton Award Foundation preseason watch list.
Chrest led Duke last season with 43 goals and earned second-team All-American status. Huether averaged 9.05 saves per game, which ranked second in the ACC a year ago.
“We feel like there are three big things this weekend that we can control,” Kimel said. “We want to communicate well on the field, play at a high level of intensity, and maintain a persistent effort for all 60 minutes of both games.”
When Duke faces off against Duquesne today at 3 p.m., its main focus will be on midfielder Ginger Flocco, the 2004 Atlantic 10 Offensive Player of the Year and a third-team pre-season All-American selection. Last season, Flocco led the A-10 with 42 goals while notching a team-high 13 assists.
In order to counter this scoring threat, Duke will call on fifth-year senior Carline McHenry to defend Flocco and will bring up an extra defender should Flocco penetrate deep into Duke’s defensive zone.
“We’re going to do what we need to do to stop her,” Kimel said.
When these two teams met in Orlando last season, Duke scored quickly and often, jumping out to a 10-1 halftime lead en route to a 12-3 win. Chrest led the team with four goals while the defense held Flocco to only one goal and no assists.
Duke will square off against Denver for the first time in seven years Sunday at 12 p.m. The last time these two teams met was in 1998, when the Blue Devils dismantled the Pioneers 15-0.
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