Vol. 11: Duke Spoils North’s Return, Cracks Top Five
Vol. 11: Duke Spoils North’s Return, Cracks Top Five
The Blue Devils held off a Boston College comeback during Charlotte North’s first return to Durham and upset the Eagles to improve to 15-1 and No. 5 nationally.
Duke celebrates its Senior Day upset of No. 2 BC on April 16. The now-No. 5 Blue Devils are 15-1 with a chance at the ACC regular season title. Photo courtesy: Duke Athletics.
Saturday was supposed to be about Charlotte North: the best player in the country, and maybe the best player in the sport’s history. She was making her first return to Duke, where she spent the first two years of her career before transferring to Boston College.
North, for the most part, however, was an afterthought during the one-goal thriller. The reigning Tewaaraton Award winner scored only two goals on just six shots. And her old teammate Maddie Jenner stole the show in the circle, as she so often does.
Jenner, capable of finishing the season as the NCAA’s all-time leader in draw controls, won the game’s most critical draw with 2:33 remaining and the score tied, 15-15.
Then longtime Blue Devils head coach Kerstin Kimel called a timeout. She drew up the perfect play for her draw specialist, who has also proven to be a scoring option for the nation’s most prolific offense.
Junior attacker Caroline DeBellis trailed left behind the cage and lofted an alley-oop pass to the 6-foot-2 Jenner, who—in one motion—leapt, caught the ball and volleyball spiked it past BC goalie Rachell Hall.
It went down as the game-winning goal after the Blue Devils’ zone defense suffocated the Eagles on the other end. In fact, Duke didn’t even allow a game-tying shot.
While Hall struggled in net all day, the Blue Devils had not one but two netminders step up. Sophia LeRose carried the load, but when she limped off late, Kennedy Everson rose to the occasion, most notably saving a North free-position shot.
Duke has been knocking on the door of the Inside Lacrosse Poll Top Five since February. The Blue Devils lead the country with 17.88 goals per game. They’re second in draw control percentage (64.3%). And, perhaps most surprising, they’re fourth in caused turnovers per game (12.12).
In silencing North and swarming driving lanes most of Saturday, Duke showed the country that it’s more than just a high-powered offensive team.
The Blue Devils are a well-rounded national title contending program.
And they’re finally recognized as one.
Other Storylines to Know:
1. Richmond beats red-hot Davidson and makes a statement in the A-10. UMass is atop the Atlantic 10 having ripped off 11 consecutive victories, including wins in all eight of its conference bouts. But, heading into the weekend, Davidson was right behind the Minutewomen. The Wildcats, off to a 12-2 start, had won six of their last seven games. Their push for first place in the league was halted by No. 19 Richmond, which downed Davidson, 15-11, on Senior Day.
The Spiders entered halftime with a one-goal advantage but outscored Davidson, 8-5, in the final two quarters of action. Richmond’s back line didn’t allow Davidson’s Gianna New—the A-10’s second-leading scorer—to record a single shot. Offensively, the Spiders were piloted by Colleen Quinn’s season-high five assists and Lindsey Frank’s career-high six goals.
Richmond is now 7-1 in league play, while the Wildcats slipped to 6-2 against A-10 foes. Davidson plays UMass this weekend, except the Minutewomen already have the regular season conference title locked up with a tie breaker over Richmond.
2. Canisius emergency goalie comes up big in 10-9 OT win over Quinnipiac. This has to be one of the best stories of the season. Canisius goalie Shannon Maroney, the only true goalie on the Golden Griffins roster, got hurt last week in the first quarter of a 19-14 loss at Monmouth. Attacker Megan Hoffman filled in the rest of the game, allowing 15 goals and making just five saves.
Head coach Russell Allen needed to find a replacement for the Quinnipiac game, and he gave the nod to midfielder Hailey Rooney on Monday. Rooney had played goalie just once before in her career…during her sophomore year of high school.
Rooney finished with 12 saves and nine goals allowed in an epic, 10-9 overtime win. Rooney made a save in the fourth quarter and in overtime while holding the Bobcats to 1-of-5 on free-position opportunities. So, what do we think — will Rooney be a full-time goalie now?
3. Emily Hawryschuk is Syracuse’s all-time leader scorer. In Syracuse’s last home game of the regular season, graduate attacker Emily Hawryschuk scored five goals in an 18-11 win over Albany and wrote her name in the Orange record book. With her fourth goal of the game, Hawryschuk reached 261 career goals and passed the all-time mark set by her head coach, Kayla Treanor (2013-16, 260).
Hawryschuk reached the mark in 87 games and missed most of the 2021 season with an ACL injury. Treanor scored 260 goals in 94 career games.
No. 4 Syracuse takes on No. 3 BC on Friday in the regular season finale.
4. Yale cracks the Top 25. Remember last week? When we talked about Yale’s awesome start, their best since 1985? Well, the Bulldogs won again, beating Cornell on the road, 15-9. This week, the Bulldogs find themselves at No. 25 in the IL Poll, their first ranking in at least 14 years.
The Bulldogs are a perfect 5-0 in the Ivy League for the first time in school history. Yale has earned five or more Ivy wins just seven other times, most recently in 2007 (13-4, 6-1 Ivy). Its win at Cornell was its first in Ithaca since April 2004. The Bulldogs have won five games in row for the first time since 2014.
A Yale player has earned Ivy League weekly honors in four of the eight weeks this season (Olivia Market 3/7 and 4/11, Marymegan Wright 4/4, Taylor Lane 4/18). The Bulldogs have four games remaining, including three matchups against ranked opponents (April 20 vs. No. 15 UConn, April 25 vs. No. 6 Stony Brook, April 30 at No. 12 Princeton).
5. Notre Dame and Pitt bust some moves. In a feel-good moment that went viral, the No. 18 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Pitt Panthers had a dance-off prior to their matchup on Saturday.
We could talk about the game that followed, but instead let’s break down the film.
Part 1 – The Worm(s) — featuring Abby Thorne (Pitt), Kasey Choma (Notre Dame), Hannah Dorney (Notre Dame)
Great start. All three got the action going at midfield and set the tone for the dance party. If we’re ranking form, we’d go Dorney (A+), Thorne (A), Choma (A-).
Part 2 – The Fake Punch — featuring Natalie Voorhees (Pitt) and Jill Fenech (Pitt)
Just when you thought the dancing might be winding down, Voorhess and Fenech take the circle by storm and catch both teams off-guard. Voorhess fakes a punch with the left fist, Fenech falls to the turf, and the two have maybe the best moves of the day. Grade: A+
Part 3 – The Bench Mob — featuring Mary Kate Doherty (Notre Dame)
The camera shifts from midfield to the Notre Dame bench, and we see the bench mob going crazy to LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem.” Doherty steals the scene twice, dropping to the turf on beat. Grade: A
6. Towson wins another nail-biter. The Tigers haven’t had a winning season since 2018. That said, they know how to keep things interesting. Last year, they made the NCAA Tournament despite going 0-4 in regular season CAA competition. Their 3-0 start was capped with a triumphant win over then-No. 8 Loyola. Then Towson lost two-goal games to Stony Brook and James Madison before nearly upsetting Drexel in the conference tourney semis in a 15-14 overtime defeat.
This year has been filled with Tigers drama, too. Towson, which began the season 0-3, has won four of its last six contests, including back-to-back overtime games. Actually, the Tigers’ last three games have all been decided with an extra frame. First, they lost, 11-10, to then-No. 22 Johns Hopkins. And, since, they’ve taken down Drexel, 16-15, and Hofstra, 11-10.
The Tigers are 6-7 but an improved 3-1 in CAA play with two regular season games left.
Towson goalie Carly Merlo sets up to make a save against Hofstra on April 16. Merlo made nine stops in the overtime win. Photo courtesy: Towson Athletics.
Weekly Focus:
ARIZONA STATE IS MAKING ITS CASE FOR ELUSIVE NCAA BID
In its fifth year as a program, Arizona State is riding a five-game winning streak with a chance at a share of the Pac-12 regular season title and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.
This month alone, ASU beat back-to-back top-25 opponents for the first time, including Stanford, the last remaining league foe it had yet to defeat. Not to mention that, this past weekend, the Sun Devils finally beat Colorado in Boulder, 16-8.
ASU elevated from club to varsity status in 2018, which prompted the Pac-12’s existing programs to leave the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) and create a six-member women’s lacrosse conference. It hasn’t taken long for the Sun Devils to build an NCAA Tournament resume. They nearly did it last year.
ASU started 2021 with a 7-2 record but lost three of its final five regular season games and was bounced in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals. This time around, the Sun Devils started 4-6 but faced a much stiffer non-conference schedule, which included Michigan, Northwestern, Florida, Stony Brook and Rutgers. Now that they’ve won five in a row, they’re 9-6 and 7-2 in Pac-12 competition with a pair of ranked victories under their belt.
To put that in perspective, before this season, ASU had only one ranked win in its young history.
This Sun Devils team has 16 seniors. Their three-headed attacking machine consists of Emily Glagolev, Carley Adams and Taylor Pinzone, all of whom have at least 35 goals in their final year.
They’ll see ASU host the Pac-12 Tournament and maybe even make the NCAA Tournament.
Emily Glagolev (left) and Carley Adams (right) combined for 15 points in ASU’s 16-8 win at Colorado on April 17. Photo courtesy: ASU Athletics.
Numbers to Know:
43 – the number of ground balls High Point scooped in a win over Longwood last Wednesday. The 43 ground balls were the third most by a team in a game this season. What’s more impressive is the fact that High Point also had 44 ground balls against Campbell on March 30 and another 42 against Presbyterian on April 9. The Panthers have three of the top-four ground ball totals in the sport in 2022.
320 – the number of yellow cards issued to MAAC teams this season, the most given to any conference. The Atlantic 10 has the second most at 297, and the Big South is third with 240.
69.8% – the winning percentage of No. 4 Syracuse’s past opponents this season, giving the Orange the toughest schedule in the sport this year. Florida has had the second-toughest schedule, with past opponents winning 69.0% of their games. Duke has the toughest remaining schedule, as their last game is against undefeated, No. 1 UNC (14-0).
Tewaaraton Watch:
POINTS PER GAME LEADERS
GOALS PER GAME LEADERS
NOTE: Stats correct through April 19.
Inside Lacrosse Poll
Screenshots pulled from insidelacrosse.com.
In perhaps the quietest week of the season, no team moved more than two spots in the IL Poll. Duke is up two to No. 5, and Northwestern is now No. 2 following Duke’s big win over BC. No. 13 UMass and No. 14 Rutgers have swapped places, as have No. 15 UConn and No. 16 UVA. Richmond is up to No. 19, and No. 25 Yale is ranked for the first time since in at least 14 years.
Let’s zoom out. No. 13 UMass is up 11 spots from its preseason ranking of No. 24. No. 15 UConn is up six from No. 21 in the preseason poll. No. 18 Notre Dame was slated as the preseason No. 5, and No. 21 Stanford was No. 13 entering Week 1. No. 17 USC, No. 19 Richmond, No. 23 Arizona State, No. 24 Navy and No. 25 Yale were all unranked to start the season. Drexel, Penn, Johns Hopkins, Temple and Penn State are the five teams that dropped out of the rankings.
What’s Ahead?
No. 15 UConn @ No. 25 Yale, April 20, 4 p.m.
No. 5 Duke @ No. 1 UNC, April 21, 8 p.m.
No. 17 USC @ No. 23 ASU, April 22, 6 p.m.
No. 4 Syracuse @ No. 3 BC, April 22, 6 p.m.
No. 2 Northwestern @ No. 8 Maryland, April 23, 11:30 a.m.
No. 13 UMass @ Davidson, April 23, 1 p.m.
Hope you enjoyed this edition of the Quick on the Draw newsletter. If you liked it or know someone who will, please share! We’ll be back next week for more coverage.