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 March 11-17:
Men’s basketball
Holding a No. 2-seed to its name ahead of a quarterfinal matchup with No. 10-seed N.C. State Thursday evening in the ACC tournament, the Blue Devils came to Washington looking to repeat as conference champions. But the Wolfpack came to play, leading for most of the game en route to a 74-69 win that sent Duke (24-8, 15-5 in the ACC) home well early of expectations. Sophomores Kyle Filipowski and Mark Mitchell combined for 46 points and 22 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to stymie the combined production of DJ Burns Jr. and DJ Horne. The tournament defeat took Duke down from a projected No. 3-seed to a No. 4-seed in the NCAA tournament, beginning this Friday against No. 13-seed Vermont in Brooklyn, N.Y. -Andrew Long
Men’s lacrosse
The fourth-ranked Blue Devils continued to coast through March as the team hosted Providence in a 21-6 conquering Wednesday. Following the victory, Duke (8-1) traveled to Richmond, Va., to play in its first away ranked matchup. Head coach John Danowski’s squad got it done on the road, leaving with a 12-3 victory against the 17th-ranked Spiders which included clean sheets in the first and third quarters. Through the two-game stretch, attackers Dyson Williams and Brennan O’Neill earned six and five goals, respectively. Next, Duke starts conference play against Syracuse in New York. -Colton Schwabe
Women’s lacrosse
Duke notched two wins this week, besting No. 22 Harvard 15-13 Tuesday and Virginia Tech 9-8 Saturday. Senior attacker Katie DeSimone, the nation’s leading scorer, found the net four times against Harvard and also had three assists, and junior attacker Carly Bernstein showed out with three goals and three assists. Saturday’s matchup against the Hokies was another close game, and Duke’s nine goals came from seven different scorers. DeSimone and senior midfielder Maddie McCorkle led the scoresheet with two apiece. The Blue Devils (6-4, 2-2) have a marquee home matchup March 23 against No. 2 Boston College. -Audrey Davies
Baseball
No. 3 Duke had its worst week of the season so far, dropping a midweek game to lowly Rider 6-2 before bouncing back in a 18-4 win Wednesday behind 15 hits. The weekend opponent was No. 9 Clemson who made the trek to Jack Coombs Field, and the Blue Devils (15-5, 3-3) could not quite finish the Tigers off. Friday was a 5-2 win after ace Jonathan Santucci had 11 strikeouts, but Saturday did not hold the same fortunes as a late Duke comeback bid was stopped short en route to a 8-7 loss. Sunday was an all-time classic, as the two top squads battled all the way to extra innings, but two Clemson homers in the 10th inning gave it the victory. Up next, Towson will come to town Tuesday before Duke travels to No. 16 N.C. State for a series. -Caleb Dudley
Softball
Over the weekend, No. 3 Duke traveled to Tallahassee, Fla., to take on Florida State. To start the series, the Blue Devils (22-2, 5-1) pulled out to a roaring 10-0 lead Friday, after which the Seminoles tallied five runs late to tighten the scoreline. The comeback bid wasn’t enough, and Duke finished with a 10-5 victory. On Saturday afternoon, Florida State flipped the script in a 4-2 win, with the Blue Devils scoring two late to tighten the contest, but its comeback attempt fell short. In Sunday’s rubber match, the two battled back-and-forth during the first seven innings, after which Duke broke through in the eighth to pull ahead and take the win, 9-5. Up next for the Blue Devils is a Wednesday doubleheader with UNC Wilmington ahead of a weekend series against Louisville. -Myles Powicki
Men’s tennis
No. 17 Duke traveled to Florida and bounced back with two quality ACC wins this weekend, a 4-1 victory against Miami Friday and a 4-3 nail-biting defeat of Florida State Sunday. Against the Hurricanes — who only had five available players — the Blue Devils (13-7, 5-2) earned the doubles point as Garrett Johns and Pedro Rodenas won 6-4. Rodenas and Andrew Zhang won in singles to clinch the match with one forfeit from Miami. Similarly, Johns and Rodenas set the tone against the Seminoles to clinch the doubles point. Zhang and freshman Alexander Visser won clutch third-set tiebreaks to give the Blue Devils the victory. Duke now faces Louisville and Notre Dame at home next week. -Ranjan Jindal
Women’s tennis
After splitting ACC matchups against Clemson and No. 23 Georgia Tech, No. 24 Duke traveled down to Orlando, Fla., for a Wednesday matchup against Princeton. The Blue Devils (10-5, 3-3) won 7-0 for the second sweep of the Tigers this season, headlined by strong play from freshman Shavit Kimchi and junior Emma Jackson. They now look ahead to a big weekend facing Wake Forest Friday before heading across town to N.C. State Sunday, beginning a crucial seven game stretch of ACC play to finish the season. Duke currently sits in seventh place in the ACC. -Vishwa Veeraswamy
Men’s golf
This past week, Duke men’s golf competed in The Hayt in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. After a slow start in the first round, the Blue Devils battled from 11th place up to fifth, relying on the marvelous performance of sophomore Ethan Evans, whose second round of 4-under powered him through to second place overall — his best ever finish as a Blue Devil. Evans was impeccable on the par-5 holes, shooting 9-under and was the low individual. The Blue Devils return back to Florida next week for the Valspar Collegiate Invitational at the Floridian National Golf Club. -Andrew Negus
Women’s golf
Duke brought it at the Florida State Match Up, taking first place in a 14-team field and scoring a record-breaking 30-under-par — the lowest in tournament history and second-lowest in school history. The Blue Devils’ -31 score over the competition’s first 36 holes marked another school record, with 24-under in the second round being the third-lowest score in NCAA history. Freshman Katie Li won the individual competition and led Duke with a pair of -6’s on rounds one and two. Her 12-under-par final score is the third-lowest in school history. The Blue Devils now look to their final competition of the regular season, next week’s Old Barnwell Match Play. -Ryan Kilgallen
Swimming and diving
At the NCAA Zone B competition in Athens, Ga., Duke divers battled for a select number of spots in next week’s NCAA Championship. Graduate student Ali Watson punched her ticket in the platform dive after winning the event with a score of 643.30. Margo O’Meara earned a spot in the 1-meter dive, finishing fourth in the event overall with a score of 580.30. Both women also competed and qualified in the 3-meter dive – O’Meara in fourth with a point total of 668.40, and Watson finished fifth with a score of 649.80. The two Blue Devils will return to Athens next week, joining Duke’s eleven female swimmers competing at the 2023-24 Women’s NCAA Championships. -Abby DiSalvo
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