Solid Second Half Sends Duke Past Louisville, 14-7

Thursday, April 23

Charlottesville, Va.

4:00 PM

Duke University

Louisville (Quarterfinals)

Solid Second Half Sends Duke Past Louisville, 14-7

4/23/2015 6:53:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

By: Duke Sports Information

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Third-ranked and second-seeded Duke outscored seventh-seeded Louisville 8-3 in the second half to key a 14-7 victory over the Cardinals Thursday in the quarterfinals of the 2015 ACC Championship at Virginia's Klöckner Stadium. The Blue Devils (14-2, 5-2 ACC) move on to Friday's tournament semifinals, where they will meet the winner of a matchup between No. 3 seed Boston College and No. 6 seed Syracuse at 3 p.m.

“What we wanted today was our kids to bounce back from the not-so-great performance against North Carolina last week, and I think we did just that,” said head coach Kerstin Kimel. “We were sharp, minus some possessions there towards the end of the game. They just did a really good job of sticking to our game plan … I'm really happy. It's hard to beat a really good team twice, and I think Louisville is super, especially on the draw.”

Senior Kerrin Maurer and junior Maddy Acton both posted hat tricks in the win, with Acton registering the first three-goal effort of her career. Senior midfielders Katie Trees and Taylor Trimble added two tallies each and classmate Brigid Smith matched a career-high with four assists in a balanced offensive performance that saw the team outshoot Louisville, 26-13.

The Duke defense guided the squad to a perfect clearing percentage on the afternoon and forced six Louisville turnovers, including two by sophomore Maura Schwitter. The unit also held all Cardinal goal scorers to single tallies on the day, and helped the Blue Devils win the ground ball battle, 14-7. Louisville had the advantage in draw controls by a 14-8 margin.

The Blue Devils found success early at the draw, winning each of the first five taken behind two from Maurer. Trees notched the game's first goal a minute and a half in, but Louisville responded with three straight to take the early lead.

Acton narrowed it to 3-2 just over a minute later and the teams swapped turnovers before Duke completed a patient offensive possession with a Kyra Harney feed to Trimble. Acton and Trimble both found the back of the net again on a pair of assists from Smith and senior Chelsea Landon to extend the Blue Devils' run to 5-0 over a 16-minute period.

The Cardinals' Kaylin Morissette won the ensuing draw and assisted teammate Kelli Gerding on a goal just nine seconds later to bring the lead back down to two with less than five minutes remaining in the half. Junior goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea stretched for a save on the final play of the period to keep Duke's lead at 6-4 heading into the intermission.

The Blue Devils held the edge in shots on goal (8-5), draw controls (6-5) and ground balls (6-4) at the break.

Louisville's Hannah Koloski converted from the eight-meter just a minute into the second half to narrow it to a one-goal game, but Duke quickly countered with two markers from its midfield unit as freshman Maddie Crutchfield and senior Erin Tenneson both broke through. Acton added a free position goal not long after to give the Blue Devils their largest lead of the afternoon at 9-5. The midfielder from Sudbury, Mass., also secured her first career hat trick in the process.

A caused turnover by senior Gabby Moise set up a Maurer goal, with the assist coming from junior Emma Lazaroff. The Cardinals cut into the lead with back-to-back tallies by Cortnee Daley and Carissa Corbett, and teammate Morissette continued to excel at the draw, winning seven of her 10 on the day in the second period. Landon then swung momentum back to Duke's favor, checking the ball out of Louisville goalkeeper Brittany Read's stick on a clear attempt and scoring on the empty net. Smith picked up her third assist of the day on a Trees goal to make it 12-7 with just over three minutes remaining. Defensively, Duryea recorded four of her five saves in the second half to fuel the Blue Devil run.

“We gave up a couple of sloppy looks at the beginning of the game, but then we tightened up and limited them, especially their top scorers,” Kimel said. “I thought Gabby Moise did an awesome job on [Hannah] Koloski and Katie Trees and Erin Tenneson did a great job on [Kaylin] Morissette.”

Maurer added two scores inside the final minute of regulation to wrap up the 14-7 victory and help Duke secure a spot in Friday's semifinals. The Blue Devils will face the winner of a final quarterfinal matchup between No. 3 seed Boston College and No. 6 seed Syracuse at 3 p.m. Friday at Virginia's Klöckner Stadium. The contest will be broadcast on RSN and ESPN3.

--- NOTES ---

- Duke advanced to the ACC semifinals for the 17th time in program history and the first time since 2012.

- With her five points on the day, senior Brigid Smith surpassed the 100-point mark for her career. She is the 23rd player in Duke history to achieve the milestone.

#GoDuke