The independent news organization of Duke University
Duke’s NCAA tournament run came to an end Sunday in College Park, Md., at the hands of the second-seeded Terrapins.
It was the Battle of the Blue; Blue Devils versus Blue Jays. And when all was said and done, Duke proved that its blue was better.
Five members of Duke men’s lacrosse have been named to the All-ACC Team, tying Virginia for the program with the most selections this year.
Duke’s season may be over, but its fans will still be able to watch one of their favorite Blue Devils play, this time in the Premier Lacrosse League.
For the first time under head coach John Danowski, Duke will not be competing in the NCAA tournament.
The problem with this inconsistency was that it became difficult to figure out how good this Duke team actually was. When the postseason loomed and eight at-large bids were at stake, that problem turned into a bonafide catastrophe for the Blue Devils.
With considerable implications for NCAA tournament selection, No. 12 Duke took on the seventh-ranked Fighting Irish in South Bend, Ind., at Arlotta Stadium in a must-win game for both teams.
This time last year, Duke’s number 51 was plying his trade in midfield.
After a lightning delay of more than an hour, Duke crushed rival North Carolina 19-11 in front of a packed Koskinen Stadium crowd.
With the hosting team decked out in visiting jerseys and holding one last chance to punch its ticket to the NCAA tournament, Friday’s game was a classic underdog tale. But not for Duke, which had its conference tournament run cut short due to a locked-in Notre Dame squad.
The frontier of sports analytics only became widely available recently through hobbyist and crowdsourced data. Using the website Lacrosse Reference, which analyzes college teams using metrics beyond the stat sheet, let’s dive into how we can use these numbers by looking at the Duke women’s lacrosse team.
While the Blue Devils are not yet a postseason lock, their early-season struggles feel further in the rearview than they have at any other point this season.
In the final game of the regular season, No. 1 North Carolina showed that it still has Duke’s number, handling the fifth-ranked Blue Devils 18-4, securing the ACC regular-season title and the top seed in the upcoming conference tournament in the process.
The seventh-ranked Blue Devils hosted No. 2 Boston College Saturday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium, where the crew delivered a 16-15 upset against the defending national champions.
Continuing a streak that began in 2005, No. 14 Duke once again defeated No. 6 Virginia in the teams’ regular-season meeting.
Sometimes your best isn’t quite enough, and that was the case against the Fighting Irish as the Blue Devils fell 16-15 at home in Koskinen Stadium.
Nothing in the ACC comes easy. Road games are even harder. And Thursday night in Blacksburg, the Blue Devils came face-to-face with seeing their seven-game winning streak snapped.
Saturday night, with Duke and North Carolina’s prestigious men’s basketball programs facing off in the Final Four, all eyes were fixed on New Orleans. Just a few hours earlier, though, that same rivalry raged on back in Chapel Hill.
With just under seven minutes left in the second period, No. 7 Duke trailed No. 16 Virginia 6-4. It seemed that every Blue Devil offensive possession was stunted with a foul or a turnover, and that they wouldn’t be able to compete with the Cavaliers. Until Katie DeSimone decided otherwise.
For a team criticized for lacking cohesion, locking down its pre-existing players and supplementing them with experience and freshman seemed a sensible strategy.