It has long been acknowledged that the Blue Devils possess one of the top scoring duos in the nation. Now they have the records to back it up.
One week after Zack Greer became the top goal scorer in NCAA history, Matt Danowski broke the NCAA record for career points in top-seeded Duke's 12-7 first-round NCAA-tournament win over Loyola in Koskinen Stadium Saturday.
With a two-goal, five-assist performance against the Greyhounds (7-7), Danowski pushed his career tally to 347 points, four more than the previous record, held by Air Force's Joe Vasta for 22 years.
"It was an awesome feeling," Danowski said. "It's just a tribute to my teammates and to Duke University itself.... I got really lucky to play on a lot of good teams here, and without those guys-from the class of '05 to the guys who are here now-that record wouldn't be possible."
Danowski fed Max Quinzani just outside the crease with five seconds left in the second quarter. Quinzani put the ball past Loyola goalie Jake Hagelin, giving his teammate the record and the Blue Devils (17-1) a 6-2 lead heading into the break.
That goal was part of a game-changing run for Duke, which got off to a slow start in its postseason opener-falling behind 2-1 early in the second quarter before scoring seven consecutive goals.
"We were ready to go by Thursday," senior Tony McDevitt said. "That showed a little bit in the first quarter. Plus, you've got to give credit to Loyola. I think they executed their game plan to perfection in the first quarter, and then we started to play our game."
The Blue Devils began their 7-0 run with a Michael Young goal midway through the second quarter, and they didn't allow the Greyhounds to cut the deficit to less than five for the rest of the contest. One man they couldn't contain, however, was Loyola attackman Collin Finnerty. The former Blue Devil led the Greyhounds with three goals in his return to Durham, but his team never seriously threatened after the second quarter.
After a tense first period, Duke settled down and became the high-octane offensive machine that it was during the regular season, as six different Blue Devils contributed to the pivotal run.
"We just relaxed and started playing with more confidence," Danowski said. "We weren't playing not to lose at that point. We were playing just to have fun and play well."
But while Duke got back to putting the ball in the net, the team didn't do it in the way it has all year. The Blue Devils' attack has thrived on manufacturing goals in transition, but the home team scored 11 of its 12 goals Saturday on six-on-six offensive sets.
"We were the most productive that we've been probably this year inside the offensive box," head coach John Danowski said. "We weren't able to manufacture goals in other ways-off the ride, off faceoffs or on the defensive end, so the majority of our scoring was six-on-six.... To know that we did a good job six-on-six will hopefully give our guys some confidence."
The improved production in its set offense aside, Duke will look to improve on what Matt Danowski called an "average" opening game as it looks ahead to a second-round matchup against Ohio State (11-5) Sunday at 12 p.m. in Ithaca, N.Y. The Buckeyes never trailed as they upset eighth-seeded Cornell 15-7 in the first round Saturday.
Even though the Buckeyes hadn't recorded an NCAA tournament win before last weekend, the Blue Devils are aware of how dangerous Ohio State is.
"All that counts is this year's games," John Danowski said. "And in this year's games, they've got one NCAA tournament win and we've got one NCAA tournament win. It's kind of a function of whatever happened in the past is the past, and this is about now, and as far as that looks, it's even. On paper, their win is much better than our win, that's for sure."
Some of the individual pressure on the Blue Devils has been relieved, as Greer and Danowski no longer have anybody to catch in the record books. But the team pressure-from being the top seed and No. 1 team in the country to the inherent pressure of a one-and-done tournament-remains for Duke, while its next opponent has already exceeded expectations.
"They're the underdogs-they can come in and just play and not worry about it," Matt Danowski said. "We just have to go in there playing to have fun and playing to win the game, and not play tight and not play not to lose. [We have to] go in there, kind of enjoy it, enjoy the atmosphere, and just play our best lacrosse and not worry about what happens at the end."
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