Courtesy: Duke Photography Aiyana Newton and the Duke defense have only allowed eight goals in the NCAA Tournament

Durham, N.C. - No. 3 Duke (18-2) will make their third appearance in the Final Four when they square off against No. 1 Northwestern at 6 p.m. on Friday at Boston University’s Nickerson Field. The Blue Devils defeated No. 13 James Madison 16-6 in the second round to advance to the Final Four for the second straight year while the Wildcats will look to defend their 2005 National Championship after knocking out No. 5 North Carolina in the second round to advance.   

Duke in the NCAA Tournament: The Blue Devils own an all-time record of 8-8 in the NCAA Tournament and will be making their third trip to the Final Four. They are appearing in their ninth straight tournament and have won their first round game in six of the nine appearances. They are 2-4 all-time in the second game. They advanced to the Final Four in 1999 and 2005 before losing to Virginia both years and will square off against Northwestern in this year’s semifinal game. Duke holds an all-time record of 8-3 at home in the postseason after two wins this year.

Road to the Final Four: Top-seeded Duke defeated Holy Cross, 18-2, and eighth-seeded James Madison, 16-6, at home on the way to their second straight Final Four. In the second round, Duke had runs of 8-0 and 7-0 to turn a 2-1 defecit into a 16-3 lead before JMU tallied three late goals. Caroline Cryer tallied a career-high six points, including a career-high four goals. Rachel Sanford had three goals and an assist while Leigh Jester also netted a hat trick. Carolyn Davis, Katie Chrest and Megan Del Monte each finished with two goals and an assist while Megan Huether recorded nine saves and only allowed four goals in 54:43 minutes.

Last Year’s Tournament: Last season the second-seeded Blue Devils cruised to a 16-4 win in the first round against Richmond and a 15-7 win over North Carolina to advance to the second Final Four in school history. In the semifinal contest, Virginia scored nine goals in the first half to take a two-goal lead at halftime and went on to win by the same amount, 15-13. Katie Chrest led Duke with 10 goals and six assists in the three games. Kristen Waagbo scored eight goals to go with five assists and Leigh Jester had nine goals and an assist. Megan Huether stopped 24 shots in the three contests.

Series History: Duke and Northwestern have faced each other three previous times with the Blue Devils holding a 2-1 advantage after snapping the Wildcat’s 31-game winning streak with a 16-10 victory earlier this season. In the two previous meetings, Duke earned a 15-9 victory at home two seasons ago and the Wildcats came away with a 16-11 win in Evanston, Ill. last year.

First Time Around: When Duke and Northwestern met earlier this season, the Blue Devils were coming off their first loss of the season to Virginia and Northwestern was undefeated with a 31-game winning streak. The Blue Devils came away with a 16-10 victory for just their second win over a No. 1 team in school history. With the score tied at 2-2 Duke went on a 6-0 run over an 18 minute span to go ahead 8-2. They proceeded to score three of the final four goals in the first half to take an 11-4 lead at halftime. With the score 12-5,, the Blue Devils tallied three straight goals to put the game out of reach. Katie Chrest led Duke with four goals and one assist. Leigh Jester put six points on the board with two goals and four assists. Carolyn Davis finished with three goals and one assist while Kristen Waagbo also netted a hat trick in the game.

Northwestern: The Wildcats only loss this season came to Duke on April 7. They started the season 10-0 and have won eight straight since losing to the Blue Devils to improve to 18-1 on the year. Kristen Kjellman leads the team with 68 goals to go along with 25 assists. Lindsey Munday has recorded 43 goals and 48 assists for 91 points. Laura Glassanos has 40 goals and 21 assists while Aly Josephs has 49 goals.

Current Devils vs. Northwestern: This year’s senior class is 2-1 in three meetings with the Wildcats. Katie Chrest has scored eight goals with three assists, Michelle Menser has four goals and Kristen Waagbo has posted six goals and three assists in the three games. Rachel Sanford led the team with three goals in her first game against Northwestern last season and Leigh Jester tallied two goals and four assists this year. Megan Huether has started all three games with 21 saves.

Blue Devils in the NCAA Tournament: This year’s senior class is 4-3 all-time in the NCAA Tournament with two straight trips to the Final Four. Katie Chrest has scored 15 goals to go along with 11 assists in seven games while Megan Huether has made 58 saves in the seven contests. Leigh Jester has recorded at least three goals in all six of her NCAA Tournament games and Kristen Waagbo has notched 12 goals and 10 assists in contests. Last season Jester and Waagbo were each named to the NCAA All-Tournament team.

Tewaaraton Finalist: Katie Chrest has been named as a finalist for the Tewaaraton Trophy for the second straight year and will try to become the first player to win the award twice after winning it last season. She joins four other finalists, including Northwestern’s Kristen Kjellman, Notre Dame’s Crysti Foote, Virginia’s Nikki Lieb and Georgetown’s Coco Stanwick. Kristen Waagbo and Rachel Sanford were each semifinalists for the award with Sanford a preseason candidate and Waagbo a midseason addition. Megan Huether was also one of three Duke players on the preseason watch list.

Treasure Chrest: Katie Chrest passed Tricia Martin for the career goals record at Duke with a goal against No. 5 Maryland on Feb. 25. She scored her 200th career goal in the ACC Semifinals against Maryland to become the fifth player in ACC history with 200 goals in a career. She now sits at 213 goals and is four shy of Virginia’s Lauren Aumiller for fourth place on the ACC list.

Streaky Scorer: Katie Chrest has scored a goal in all 20 games this season for Duke to extend her streak to 53 straight games with at least one goal. The last game she was held scoreless was in a 12-5 loss to No. 1 Princeton on March 17, 2004. She has recorded at least one goal in 74 of her 78 career contests. She scored in every game last season and has recorded multiple goals in 62 games in her career.  

Late Surge: Since the start of the ACC Tournament on April 28, Megan Huether has played extremely well with a 6.79 goals against average and a .614 save percentage in five games. She has recorded 51 saves while only allowing 32 goals. She has allowed fewer than five goals in each of the past three games, including six total goals in the two NCAA Tournament contests. She also has 13 ground balls and four caused turnovers in her last five outings.

Balanced Attack: The Blue Devils’ offense features a balanced attack with eight players scoring over 10 goals and five with over 30 on the year. Seven different players have led the team in scoring in games this season while they have also had seven different players lead the team in points throughout the year. Katie Chrest has led the team with 61 goals to go with 19 assists. She has led the team in scoring 10 times this season followed by Kristen Waagbo, who has been the leader five times. Waagbo has a school-record 32 assists to go along with 45 goals giving her a career high 77 points. Rachel Sanford, Carolyn Davis, Michelle Menser, Leigh Jester and Caroline Cryer have also each been the high scorer this year.

Duke vs. Ranked Teams: The Blue Devils are 11-2 against ranked teams this year, setting a new school record for wins over ranked teams in a season. The 2001 team held the previous record with wins over 10 ranked teams. The Blue Devils have earned wins over eight teams ranked in the top-10, four of which were top-five squads. The Blue Devils own a 59-35 record against ranked foes since the beginning of the 2000 season. They will square off against No. 1 Northwestern in the NCAA semifinals on Friday.

School Records: This has been a record-breaking season for the Blue Devils as they have set new records for wins (18), win streak (9), home win streak (9), best start (9-0), goals (301), assists (123) and points (424). The also broke game records for goals (24) and win margin (22) in a 24-2 win over Saint Joseph’s. Individually, Katie Chrest set new school records for career goals (213) and career points (284). Kristen Waagbo set the single season assist record with 32 and Megan Huether broke the career saves record (642).