After the best regular season in team history, Duke begins the postseason this weekend at the ACC Championships in Baltimore, Md.
The Blue Devils (13-1, 3-0 in the ACC) are the tournament’s top seed and will face North Carolina (5-8, 0-3 in the ACC) Friday night at 6 p.m.
Duke is looking for its first ACC Championship since winning back-to-back titles in 2001 and 2002.
The Blue Devils face a rejuvenated North Carolina team, which won its last three games. Duke won their last meeting 12-10 in Chapel Hill March 19.
“Of course we expect a great game,” Duke freshman Zack Greer said. “They are rivals from a few miles away.”
In UNC, Duke will play a team many predicted would make the Final Four in preseason polls. UNC lurched to a 2-7 start thanks to the hardest schedule in Division I but enters the weekend playing the best lacrosse of its season.
The Tar Heels must win Friday and Sunday in order to be mathematically eligible for the NCAA Tournament.
“We know they are in a desperate situation,” head coach Mike Pressler said. “We were there a year ago.”
With its only loss in 2005 coming in double overtime to No. 1 Johns Hopkins, Duke is the hottest it has ever been in Pressler’s 15-year career in Durham. In their last two games the Blue Devils beat No. 3 Virginia and No. 7 Army by a combined 36-11 margin.
They have occupied the No. 2 spot in the USILA poll since March 21.
Those accomplishments have all but erased the stain left by the team’s disappointing 2004 record of 5-8. Wins in the ACC and NCAA tournaments would complete the set of lofty goals the team set forth at the beginning of the season, Pressler said.
The first was winning the ACC regular-season title, which Duke secured with its blowout win over Virginia April 16.
This weekend will mark the first time the tournament will be played in Baltimore, lacrosse’s traditional hotbed.
Pressler said attendance will likely hit 10,000 fans for Friday’s game at the M&T Bank Stadium, where the Baltimore Ravens play.
“I don’t think the crowd will have that much of an effect on us,” said Greer, whose 43 goals rank first on the team. “It’s not going to affect how we play and hopefully we can take home a couple wins.”
When the Blue Devils traveled to Baltimore earlier this year for their contest against the Blue Jays, there were 7,136 people in attendance.
Nearly 50,000 fans came to the Ravens’ stadium to watch last year’s NCAA Final Four. Although a crowd that large is not expected for Sunday’s 3:30 p.m. championship game, the women’s tournament will also be played at the M&T Bank Stadium, making for a great atmosphere.
Friday’s other semifinal between Virginia (9-2, 2-1) and Maryland (6-5, 1-2) will begin at 8:30 p.m. Virginia won the two teams’ previous meeting April 2, 10-2.
In last year’s tournament, the Blue Devils lost 10-7 to Maryland in the semifinals and did not receive an NCAA Tournament bid.
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