In many ways, the Duke women?s lacrosse team mirrors the school?s men?s basketball teams of the late 1980s. Both teams put together great regular seasons, made a run deep into the NCAA tournament before falling just shortof the ultimate goal of winning a national title.
The men?s basketball team finally got over that hurdle in 1991 when the Blue Devils won the first of their three championships. Now 16 years later, the women?s lacrosse team is poised to do the same thing.
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Duke (15-3) takes the next step toward winning its first national title Saturday when it hosts Johns Hopkins (12-7) in the NCAA Division I tournament quarterfinals. The second-seeded Blue Devils advanced with a 23-8 first-round win over Le Moyne. The Blue Jays moved on following their 12-8 victory over Hofstra.
Duke coach Kerstin Kimel knows it won?t be easy, but she feels like her team is ready to really make waves this season after advancing to the Final Four each of the last two seasons. She points to lessons learned from past defeats and the luck of remaining relatively injury-free as the biggest factors for her confidence.
“I think we?ve come to a point as a program where just getting to the Final Four is not good enough,” said Kimel, a 1993 Maryland graduate and Duke?s only coach since the program?s inaugural year in 1996.
“As a team, we?ve learned a lot from how the last two seasons have ended. I think the greatest thing we?ve realized is just how hard it is to win a national title.”
For Johns Hopkins to pull off the upset, it will have to find a way to neutralize Duke?s high-powered attack of junior Leigh Jester and seniors Kristen Waagbo (Mount Hebron) and Caroline Cryer, among others. Jester has scored 26 goals and added 64 assists, while Waagbo has scored 41 goals and dished out 40 assists. Waagbo is now third on the Atlantic Coast Conference?s all-time list for career goals (156) and assists (112). Cryer, a finalist for the Tewaarton Trophy, has 64 goals, 17 assists and 59 draw controls.
“Right now, we?ve put all of the focus on ourselves to improve our game, prepare for a tough Johns Hopkins team and get backto the Final Four,” Waagbo said. “I don?t think we?ve peaked yet, and as a senior class, anything less than a national title would be a disappointment.”
