Duke Defeats Mount St. Mary’s, Advances to Second Round

Friday, May 14

Durham, N.C.

3:00 PM

Duke University

10-7

Mount St. Mary's (Md.)

14-3

MOUNT

Duke

Duke Defeats Mount St. Mary’s, Advances to Second Round

5/14/2021 9:49:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score Bracket Gallery

DURHAM, N.C. – Behind a team effort, the seventh-ranked Duke women's lacrosse team defeated Mount St. Mary's, 19-3, Friday afternoon in first round action of the NCAA Championship at Koskinen Stadium.

With the victory, the Blue Devils improve to 10-7 this season and advance to the second round on Sunday. Duke is now 15-3 in NCAA openers and has won 12 consecutive first-round matchups.

Eleven different Blue Devils notched goals in the victory and were led by rookie Katie DeSimone with seven points in her first career NCAA appearance with four goals and three assists. Graduate student Catherine Cordrey added four goals to tie her career high while DeSimone's goal outing is a career high.

Additional Blue Devils who found the back of the cage were senior Catriona Barry (2), Maddie McCorkle (2), Eva Greco (1), Anna Callahan (1), Abby Landry (1), Gabby Rosenzweig (1), Madison Dunk (1), Mary Markwordt (1) and Ainsley Thurston (1). Rosenzweig matched her season-high with four assists, while Greco, Callahan, Markwordt and Thurston notched one assist each as Duke dished assists on over half its goals.

Today's game marked the first career goal for McCorkle and the first this season for Dunk and Markwordt.

Duke dominated possession early in the first half, outscoring the Mount 8-0 at the halfway point in the opening stanza. The Blue Devils found their rhythm early and won the first six straight draw controls to help control the tempo. Maddie Jenner won five of those and ended the contest with 10, her ninth game this season topping the 10-plus draw plateau.

Cordrey got hot quickly for a hat trick in under 15 minutes as she found the back of the cage three times, once from a sneaky cut pass from Rosenzweig. Trailing 8-0 with 13:27 left in the first, the Mount tallied its first goal of game at 9:58 as Jordan Groover found Sara Moeller (8-1). Duke added on two more goals to head into halftime with a nine-goal lead (10-1).

Goalkeeper Sophia LeRose picked up six saves in the first half and ended the game with seven for a .778 save percentage, her best showing this season.

Duke would outscore Mount St. Mary's 9-2 in the second half as DeSimone tallied two more to give her 21 for the season. With just over two minutes left, Markwordt and Thurston traded scores and assists as Duke came away with a dominant 19-3 victory to head to the second round.

Duke won the battle of the draw, 15-7, and the ground ball game, 14-10, as senior Natalie Kahn picked up a tied for career high three ground balls and caused a turnover for Duke's defense. The Blue Devils were also perfect on clears, going 16-for-16.

Zoe Hurlburt, Alayna Pagnotta and Moeller recorded the Mount's goals as goalkeeper Jenna Oler had four saves between the pipes.

Duke will now face No. 12 Maryland in second round action Sunday, May 16 at 1 p.m., on ESPN3 in Durham.

For more information on Duke women's lacrosse, follow the Blue Devils on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching "DukeWLAX.

#GoDuke