Sportswrap: Duke baseball wins ACC tournament, women's golf and men's lacrosse fall in Final Four

On Sunday, Duke baseball won its first ever conference tournament, and first ACC title since 1961.
On Sunday, Duke baseball won its first ever conference tournament, and first ACC title since 1961.

Sportswrap is your one-stop shop for everything Duke athletics, where we’ll recap how each of Duke’s sports currently in competition performed over the last week and give a brief look ahead. Here’s our recap for the week of May 25-June 1. This is our last edition of our weekly recap for the year, and we’ll be back when fall sports start up to bring you all the news in Duke athletics.

Baseball 

The ninth-seeded Blue Devils brought an eight-game win streak to Charlotte for the ACC tournament, and won four straight to claim the program’s first-ever conference tournament championship and first title since 1961. With the help of an electrified offense and a lockdown bullpen, Duke heads to the NCAA tournament for the third straight season—another program first—and will take on Liberty in the opener Friday to kick off the Knoxville, Tenn., Regional. -Micah Hurewitz

Track and field

Both Blue Devil women's relay units—4x100m and 4x400m—qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships Saturday. Along with Erin Marsh and Zoe Hughes, who already locked down spots in the heptathlon prior to the East Regional in Florida, the relay teams getting the job done now means that eight Duke athletes will head to Oregon. NCAAs will take place June 9-12. -Max Rego

Women’s golf

After finishing the stroke play portion of the NCAA Championship at +3, Duke secured the No. 2 seed in the match play, with Gina Kim and Phoebe Brinker both finishing in a tie for fifth at -2. In the quarterfinals, the Blue Devils came through on the 17th hole twice to send Arizona State packing 3-1-1, but the semifinals would be a stark contrast. Against No. 3-seed Oklahoma State, the Blue Devils just did not hole enough putts, eventually falling 5-0-0 to the Cowgirls and seeing their hopes of a repeat title dashed. -Rego 

Men’s lacrosse

No. 2-seed Duke's season ended in heartbreaking fashion Saturday as the Blue Devils fell to No. 3-seed Maryland 14-5 in the NCAA tournament Final Four. While the team struggled to generate offense in the first half, the playing field was evened by turnovers on both sides. However, Maryland eventually gained momentum, going on a 10-1 run until graduate transfer Michael Sowers scored one final goal for the Blue Devils with 20 seconds left in the game. -Sasha Richie

Rowing 

Duke finished 16th in the nation at the NCAA Championships, with the Varsity Eight finishing 16th overall, the Varsity Four coming in at ninth overall and the Second Varsity Eight ending the day 13th overall. This was the team’s final regatta this season, but the Blue Devils return most of their rowers, setting them up for an exciting 2021-22 season. -Cameron DeChurch

Women’s tennis

On May 25 the Duke women’s tennis season concluded with three losses in the individual competition. The doubles team of Chloe Beck and Karolina Berankova lost in the second round of the doubles tournament to N.C. State's Alana Smith and Anna Rogers while senior Kelly Chen and redshirt sophomore transfer Georgia Drummy lost to Vanderbilt's Christina Rosca and Oregon's Janice Tjen, respectively, in the Sweet 16 of the singles tournament. -Campbell Lawson

Men’s tennis 

The Duke duo of Garrett Johns and Sean Sculley suffered a straight sets defeat to Tennessee's third-seeded duo of Pat Harper and Adam Walton in the first round of the NCAA Doubles Championships, effectively ending the year for the Blue Devils. -Robert Miron

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