Women's Lacrosse Falls to No. 1 Maryland, 18-11

Saturday, February 26

College Park, Md.

12:00 PM

Duke University

Maryland

Women's Lacrosse Falls to No. 1 Maryland, 18-11

2/26/2011 2:53:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

By: Duke Sports Information

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - In a battle of top-5 teams, the Blue Devils women's lacrosse team hung tight with top-ranked Maryland, but the Terps pulled away with a 5-1 run to start the second half and handed Duke an 18-11 loss Saturday afternoon. The Blue Devils fall to 3-1 overall and 0-1 in the ACC while Maryland remains undefeated, moving to 4-0 and 1-0 in the conference.

"We did a lot of really good things today," said head coach Kerstin Kimel. "I'm disappointed that we gave up some momentum at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half. We have a lot of room to improve and this will be a game we will really grow from moving forward."

The Blue Devil offense was paced by redshirt junior Emma Hamm with three goals and two assists, and senior Christie Kaestner with two goals and three assists. Senior Sarah Bullard and junior Kat Thomas also chipped in with two goals apiece.

Duke spotted Maryland an early two-goal lead to start a tightly contested first half, but Duke was able to pull even after back-to-back goals from Thomas and Bullard. The rest of the first period saw the two teams even the score six times over the remaining 20 minutes as the Blue Devils took a one-goal lead three times, but were unable to add to their advantage.

Maryland went up 7-6 with 5:37 left in the first period before Duke freshman Maddie Morrissey netted a free position shot for her first collegiate goal to again tie the game. After trading goals over the first 29 minutes of play, Maryland scored two quick goals in the final 39 seconds of the first half to take a 9-7 lead into the intermission.

"We had a great week of preparation and from a game plan perspective, I thought there were a lot of great things we did on the field. We gave up two momentum goals in my opinion. Obviously the first half was really competitive, but to give up two goals under 40 seconds, that's hard."

The Terps' Katie Schwarzmann and Karri Ellen Johnson, who both tallied five goals in the game, registered back-to-back goals to open the second half before Bullard ended the run with a free position goal to keep Duke within four. Yet that is as close as the Blue Devils would come as Maryland capitalized on the momentum shift to build a seven-goal margin.

For the game, Duke won the draw, 16-15, but Maryland led in shots (33-27) and ground balls (17-12). In a physical game throughout, the two teams combined for 48 fouls and four yellow cards.

Duke returns to action Mar. 5 against Princeton from Koskinen Stadium at 4 p.m.

-d-u-k-e-