Duke Falls to No. 3 North Carolina, 16-8

Saturday, April 23

Chapel Hill, N.C.

2:00 PM

Duke University

North Carolina

Duke Falls to No. 3 North Carolina, 16-8

4/23/2016 4:57:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

Season Statistics Box Score

By: Duke Sports Information

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The 13th-ranked Blue Devils weathered a first-half run by No. 3 North Carolina but struggled to find a rhythm in a 16-8 loss to the Tar Heels in Saturday's regular season finale at Fetzer Field. Duke slipped to 9-7 overall and 4-3 in ACC play entering next week's ACC Championship in Blacksburg, Va.

After North Carolina rattled off seven unanswered in a 14-minute span, the Blue Devils trimmed the deficit to just five by the break. Duke turned in an improved defensive performance in the second half and remained close in several statistical categories but fell short of completing the rally.

Sophomore Kyra Harney led the Blue Devils' offensive effort, collecting her ninth hat trick of the season, while senior Kelci Smesko chipped in two goals and an assist. Duke was also kept in the contest by 10 draw controls from freshman Olivia Jenner, who helped the Blue Devils outdraw the Tar Heels by a 16-11 margin.

“We got away from our game plan early,” said head coach Kerstin Kimel. “We weren't being aggressive going to goal. That was part of what we wanted to do. We felt like there were some areas where we could exploit them defensively, and we didn't have enough people doing those things throughout the game. The second half, we got a little bit better with that. But we just didn't have enough people attacking the goal the way we had intended.”

The Tar Heels jumped out to a quick advantage after scoring off the opening draw of the contest. The score continued to follow the draw as Duke used a patient offensive approach to counter with tallies by its two leading scorers, Smesko and Harney.

Four different North Carolina players contributed to a run that put the home team ahead by three. The Tar Heels continued to capitalize off the draw, with Carly Reed going back-to-back and Aly Messinger adding another to make it an 8-3 contest with just over eight minutes remaining in the half.

Jenner kept the Blue Devils within striking distance at the draw and senior Maddy Acton stepped up to snap a 16-minute scoreless streak. Duke received goals from Harney and freshman Ella Bonafede inside the final three minutes of the half to narrow it to 10-5 at the intermission.

Harney secured a hat trick on a man-up opportunity at the 21:17 mark but the deficit stayed at five for much of the second period. North Carolina strung together three-straight for a 14-6 advantage before the Blue Devils used momentum from a Kelsey Duryea save to get back within six on goals by sophomore Maddie Crutchfield and Smesko.

Turnovers continued to plague Duke, though, and the Tar Heels tacked on two final scores by Molly Hendrick to account for the final margin.

Ela Hazar and Messinger both finished with hat tricks for North Carolina, while four other players had multiple tallies.

The Tar Heels' Megan Ward and Duke's Duryea both registered eight saves apiece.

North Carolina held a 29-23 advantage in shots, but placed 24 of its looks on cage and committed just 10 turnovers to 17 by the Blue Devils.

The Tar Heels (13-2) concluded regular season conference play with a 7-0 ledger to earn the regular season title and the No. 1 seed in next week's ACC Tournament.

Duke will await the release of the 2016 ACC Championship bracket to learn its opponent for the first round Thursday, April 28 in Blacksburg, Va.

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