Duke women's lacrosse comes up short against top-ranked Boston College

For the first 33 minutes of the contest, the Blue Devils hung tough on the road against undefeated No. 1 Boston College—never trailing by more than two and holding the lead on three different occasions. 

However, the potent Eagles offense, ranked No. 2 in the country with 17.6 goals-per-game, exploded on a 11-2 run—including seven straight goals—to bury No. 13 Duke 20-12 Saturday afternoon at Newton Campus Fields in Newton, Mass. Dempsey Arsenault netted five tallies while the nation’s leading goal scorer Sam Apuzzo contributed four goals of her own to lead the offensive assault.

After two consecutive unassisted goals from Abby Landry in the first two minutes of the second half cut the Blue Devil deficit to 9-8, the relatively quiet Boston College offense came alive. The Eagles sandwiched an Olivia Jenner goal with two of their own to extend the lead to 13-9 with 20 minutes left. 

Despite a Catherine Cordrey free position goal cutting the gap to three, the home team went on its final 7-0 run before Ellie Marjure and Maddie Jenner stopped the bleeding. The Eagles had five different scorers on their run and a typically solid Duke defense that entered the game allowing under 10 goals-per-game folded. 

Although the Blue Devils (8-5, 2-3 in the ACC) won the draw in the second half 12-6, and won 18-16 overall in a matchup between the top two draw control percentage teams in the nation, Boston College (14-0, 5-0) got to nine more ground balls and had three less turnovers in the final period. The Eagles caused 11 turnovers on the day, led by attackman Kenzie Kent’s three. Kent had an outstanding all-around performance, registering a hat track, five assists and five ground balls.

The game started off as a back-and-forth affair, with neither team holding more than a one-goal lead until five minutes left in the half. After Sheila Rietano opened up the scoring for the hosts, Olivia Jenner converted on consecutive goals nine seconds apart to give the visitors an early 2-1 lead. 

From there, the two squads traded goals before consecutive goals from Arsenault and Apuzzo gave the Eagles a 7-5 lead with just over five minutes left in the first half. Two more goals in the final two minutes before intermission for the home squad had Boston College entering the break up 9-6.

Jenner and Landry led the Blue Devils, each notching a hat trick. The former also chipped in an assist and had nine draw controls. Charlotte North, who leads the team in scoring with 57 goals on the season, was limited to just one tally. After averaging 5.1 goals per game over the first 11 games to lead the country in scoring, the sophomore sensation has been the focus of defenses as of late. North was held scoreless in the loss against Syracuse last week and was only able to pull off two shots in yesterday’s contest.