No. 2 Blue Devils Come Back Against William & Mary, 18-11

Sunday, February 22

Durham, N.C.

3:00 p.m.

Duke University

William & Mary

Blue Devils Advance Past Boston College, Earn Rematch With UNC

No. 2 Blue Devils Come Back Against William & Mary, 18-11

2/22/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. ? Four goals from freshman midfielder Kat Thomas ? in addition to hat tricks from Sarah Bullard, Carolyn Davis, and Lindsay Gilbride ? lifted the No. 2 Duke women's lacrosse team to an 18-11 win Sunday afternoon over non-conference foe William & Mary at Koskinen Stadium.

Duke had found itself down by as many as three goals in the first half before charging back with a nine-goal second half to pull out the victory. Three of Thomas' four goals came in the second half.

The win was Duke's fourth of the year, as the Blue Devils improved to 4-0 for the fifth straight season. William & Mary dropped to 1-1 with the loss. Today's victory wrapped up a 2-0 weekend for the Blue Devils, who defeated Richmond, 14-9, on Friday night at Koskinen.

“I think we did a good job in the last 15 minutes of the first half, kind of getting adjusted to how the officials were calling the game, and I felt we did a better job on the draw and controlling the ball,” said head coach Kerstin Kimel. “We had some momentum coming into second half [after scoring more], so the kids felt comfortable and fresh to push the tempo at the beginning of the second half.”

The Blue Devils got on the board first on Danielle Kachulis' first goal of the season, coming on a free-position chance. But William & Mary netted three straight to take the early lead, before a Bullard free position made it 3-2 and a Del Monte unassisted tally tied it up as the senior dodged through traffic to find the shot.

The Tribe took the lead back on a free position shot by Clare Dennis, and W&M once again tallied three straight to take a 6-3 lead with 8:24 left in the first half. Finding itself down three goals, the Blue Devils went off on a six-goal blitz, scoring six in a row before halftime to take back the lead in commanding fashion as the scoreboard read 9-6 at the break. Gilbride netted two during that stretch for Duke.

The Blue Devil rampage continued after halftime as Duke scored the first two goals of the second half to complete an 8-0 scoring run. Bullard got her first after halftime just 20 seconds in to set the tone and put Duke up 10-6, which was followed by a Davis goal off a Del Monte assists to make it 11-6.

At the 14:00 and 11:01 marks in the second, Thomas posted her final two scores of the day off assists from Bullard and Caroline Cryer to put Duke up 15-9. Duke allowed a pair of late William & Mary scores but would end up scoring the last two of the game to seal the 18-11 victory.

Del Monte finished with two goals on the afternoon, while Cryer, Kachulis, and Christie Kaestner added one apiece. For W&M, Dennis and Molly Wannen each had tricks. In goal, Kim Imbesi made six saves.

Duke held the 36-20 edge in the shot column in addition to winning 17 draws to the Tribe's 14. The Blue Devils were 9-of-11 on free position opportunities.

The game was a reunion of sorts for the William & Mary coaching staff in Durham, as Tribe head coach Christine Halfpenny is a former assistant to Kimel. Assistant coach Ashley Coll and volunteer assistant Megan Huether are both 2006 graduates of the Duke women's lacrosse program as well.

Next up for the Blue Devils is a trip up to College Park, Md., for a match-up with the No. 6 University of Maryland Terrapins on Sat., Feb. 28 at 12 p.m. for the ACC opener. The Terps (2-0) are coming off a 16-4 win over UMass yesterday.

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