After two consecutive quick exits from the NCAA tournament, a commanding first round win against Johns Hopkins looked to give the Blue Devils the juice to advance to the Final Four in Boston.
Sophomore Brad Smith, freshman Kevin Quigley and junior attackman Justin Guterding combined to score 10 goals for the Blue Devils.
The No. 2 seeded Blue Devils fell to the third-seeded Fighting Irish 7-6 at home in the confines of Koskinen Stadium Saturday night.
Just a few weeks ago, Inside Lacrosse projected that Duke would not make the NCAA tournament. Since then, the Blue Devils have ripped off three straight ACC wins to go flying to the top of the polls.
At this time last season, Duke was trying to drag itself into the national conversation after coming into the spring unranked, but the program has struggled to take the next step forward this spring.
With a raucous crowd enjoying a physical battle, the Blue Devils took an early 4-1 lead, then scored the last two goals of the third quarter to seize a commanding 10-5 advantage. Bruckner finished with four goals on just seven shots, and senior goalkeeper Danny Fowler and the Duke defense suffocated Notre Dame's star trio all afternoon long.
Danowski’s 2007 Tewaaraton win that helped Duke quickly move past the cancellation of the 2006 season and catalyzed its rapid ascension to becoming the nation’s premier program.
The Blue Devils used a 4-0 fourth-quarter spurt to take a 11-9 lead with 6:29 remaining, but the Orange showed their experience by staying calm to pull out a program-record sixth consecutive game decided by one goal.
Tom Crean became yet another victim of a thought process sweeping across college athletic departments defined by the question, “What have you done for me lately?”
Now in his 35th season, Danowski eclipsed former Virginia and Brown head coach Dom Starsia's record as his team extended its winning streak to four and honored its leader by signing the game ball to mark the achievement.
