When the members of Duke’s senior class began their college careers in spring 2013, Marquette had just established a Division I lacrosse program.
Now four years later, the Golden Eagles travel to Durham hoping to dash the Blue Devils’ postseason hopes and spoil their seniors’ final game at home.
With its ACC regular season in the rearview mirror, No. 16 Duke hosts No. 15 Marquette in the Blue Devils’ home finale Friday at 7 p.m. at Koskinen Stadium. Duke was able to lock up a spot in next weekend’s ACC tournament in Kennesaw, Ga., with a dominant 14-8 win at Virginia last weekend. But having lost three of their last five games, the Blue Devils still have to boost their resume in order to improve their chances of making the NCAA tournament.
“This is do-or-die,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “If we lose, there is no tournament for us.... This is absolutely as much of a must-[win] game as we’ve ever had here.”
Offensively, the Blue Devils (8-6) have been anchored by their senior corps, including midfielder Myles Jones and his team-high 58 points as well as fellow midfielder Deemer Class. Duke has the second-highest scoring offense in the nation and has posted double-digit goals in three of its past four games.
Class leads the Blue Devils with 2.9 goals per game, a mark that ranks eight in the nation. Duke’s balanced attack—which has been held to single digits just three times this year and boasts six different players with at least 26 points—will challenge Marquette, a team that likes to slow down the pace.
“We know that we can fill up the net,” Jones said. “We only do that when all the guys are doing it together, not when one guy is trying to do it himself, so we’re sticking to the fundamentals. We’re looking for the most high-percentage goal rather than the opportunity that presents itself first, so we’re excited to be patient like we were against Virginia and capitalize when we have the chance.”
The Golden Eagles (9-2) will rely on their top-ranked defense—which allows just 6.6 goals per game—to slow Duke down. Marquette boasts an experienced defensive unit led by a pair of graduate students in B.J. Grill and Liam Byrnes as well as junior Nicholas Eufrasio.
The key during the past three weeks, though, has been sophomore goaltender Cole Blazer, who made his first career start April 2 against then-No. 5 Villanova and has dominated since being thrust into the lineup. The Libertyville, Ill., native has surrendered just 24 goals and has made 37 saves in the Golden Eagles’ last four games and allowed just three goals against the Wildcats.
“They are a great defensive team,” senior attackman Chad Cohan said. “We just want to go out there and play our game. We’re not changing that much—dodge hard, put the ball in each other’s stick and just make sure we execute.”
Although Danowski noted that there will not be much of a formal sendoff for the seniors in their last game on Duke’s campus, that does not mean they will depart the field at Koskinen for the final time without having left their mark.
Jones and Class were members of back-to-back national championship teams in their freshman and sophomore campaigns, but as upperclassmen, they have created their own legacies. Jones has the most points and Class has the most goals of any Blue Devil midfielders in school history.
“[The seniors] have represented the program as well as anybody has in our history,” Danowski said. “[They are] really good guys and terrific students.”
With the added pressure of having their backs up against the wall, the Blue Devils will have to rely on their experience all over the field. Junior goalkeeper Danny Fowler has been steady in net for most of the season along with senior defensemen Chris Coady and Jamie Ikeda—holding opponents to just more than 10 goals per game.
Friday night will be a clash of two very distinct styles, but the opportunity to make a statement and earn a critical late-season win is something that the Blue Devils are looking forward to.
“It’s a sense of urgency,” Jones said. “We don’t want to go out with the feeling of playing on our home field for the last time and coming away disappointed. This is a huge game for us.”
Ryan Hoerger contributed reporting.
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Twitter: @mpgladstone13
A junior from just outside Philadelphia, Mitchell is probably reminding you how the Eagles won the Super Bowl this year and that the Phillies are definitely on the rebound. Outside of The Chronicle, he majors in Economics, minors in Statistics and is working toward the PJMS certificate, in addition to playing trombone in the Duke University Marching Band. And if you're getting him a sandwich with beef and cheese outside the state of Pennsylvania, you best not call it a "Philly cheesesteak."