Sign up for the latest news & updates

© 2024 USA Lacrosse. All Rights Reserved.

With its first trip to the NCAA women’s lacrosse quarterfinals since 2015 seemingly slipping away, Duke goalie Sophia LeRose stepped up at the biggest time.

Reigning NCAA champion Maryland had battled back from a 13-7 deficit, trimming the margin to just one goal and regained possession with a final chance to tie the game. With the game clock winding down under 10 seconds, Maryland’s Libby May broke free for a great look, but LeRose tipped the shot away from the goal to preserve a 13-12 Duke victory.

“I wasn’t even expecting that shot,” LeRose said, “but also at the same time, with 10 seconds left, we were ready for anything.”

The junior from San Diego was solid all day, finishing with 11 saves. Like the majority of her teammates, she’s playing in her first NCAA tournament, but was ready to rise to the occasion.

“Seeing those last 30 seconds wind down and seeing Soph get that amazing save, it’s just so exciting,” said true freshman Katie DeSimone who had four goals for the second straight time in the NCAA tournament. “This is a moment I’m going to have forever and our team from top to bottom did an amazing job overall.”

Despite Maryland’s Shaylyn Ahearn doing great work neutralizing Duke’s Maddie Jenner on the draw, Duke held just a 14-13 edge, the Blue Devils seemed in control for much of the game.

Maryland’s Brindi Griffin scored just over two minutes into the game, but that was the only lead all day for the Terps. Duke scored three straight goals to take a 3-1 lead and then closed the first half with goals by DeSimone and Gabby Rosenzweig in the final two minutes to take a 9-6 lead at the break.

Rosenzweig, a graduate transfer from Penn, has been a key force in providing leadership and experience to this Duke squad. She finished the game with two goals and three assists.

“She has been someone I’ve looked up to always,” said DeSimone, who had two of her goals come off of assists from Rosenzweig. “Every day we’re on the field I just want to learn. I’m like a sponge around her. She has so much knowledge that she throws at me.”

Jenner and DeSimone scored the first two goals of the second half to stretch the lead to 11-6 and it eventually reached six goals when Catriona Berry scored with 20:45 left to make it 13-7.

That would be Duke’s last goal of the game.

Maryland’s comeback began innocently enough with Catie May (2g, 3a) scoring at the 14:46 mark. Catie’s younger sister, Libby, then scored two straight, but Duke still had a three-goal lead as the clock ticked under three minutes to play.

Maryland’s Grace Griffin scored with 2:22 to play to make it 13-11. After the Terps won the ensuing draw, Hannah Leubecker drove in from the left wing and drew a foul for a free position shot. She went with a sidearm righthander to bury her third goal of the game and Maryland pulled within one goal for the first time since early in the first half.

Jenner won the next draw, but Duke was unable to run out the clock. With Maryland goalie Emily Sterling (six saves) pulled to provide an extra defender, Grace Griffin caused a turnover to give the Terps a final possession with 30 seconds to play.

Leubecker fought through a double team to clear the ball after a timeout. The ball eventually found its way to Libby May’s stick. May, who had already scored four times in the game, made a nice change of direction move to get free for a right-handed shot, but LeRose denied the shot giving Duke its first one-goal victory of the season.

“We’ve been in these games all year long and we just haven’t had enough to get over the edge,” said Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel. “We were right there with Carolina, we were right there with Notre Dame. We didn’t have enough in us to win those games.”

It wasn’t the ending Maryland hoped for after winning the national championship in 2019. In one of the more unusual college lacrosse seasons in memory, Maryland will not be in the final four for the first time since 2008.

“To not have a fall ball, to not be able to play any nonconference games, those kinds of things hurt us today and you saw it,” said Maryland head coach Cathy Reese. “It hurt us this season. You saw the lack of experience where we had to be thrown in and learn as we went. I’m hopeful for this group and this team moving forward that we can some sense of normal coming back.”

But she had plenty to be thankful for as to how the Terps battled back.

“To see the fight that this group had and their determination and the heart they played with was pretty special,” Reese said.

The last 15 mintues wasn’t what Kimel would’ve drawn up, but she too had plenty to appreciate.

Duke reached the NCAA quarterfinals 11 straight times from 2005 to 2015, but after bowing out in the second round of the 2016 NCAA tournament, the Blue Devils hadn’t been back in the tournament at all until this season.

“We are an older team now,” Kimel said. “The years we didn’t make the tournament, we were really young. Our upperclassmen leadership is fantastic. They are so dialed in, so locked in. We were very frank with them. We said, ‘You all have never done this before, so you need to learn how to do this.’”

Reaching the quarterfinals is not the final goal. The Blue Devils, who will face Northwestern in the quarterfinals, seemed very determined to keep moving forward.

“I just said to Katie DeSimone, ‘This is why you came here and remember what this feels like because this is where we belong every year,’” said Kimel. “When you haven’t been there for a while, you can feel sorry for yourself and let that feeling of woah is us creep into your team culture, but you have to be able to flip your mindset and do the work to put yourself in a position to win these games.

“At this time of the year, it’s all about survive and advance. That last 15 minutes wasn't the prettiest version of lacrosse we can play, but it was enough to win and I’ll take it.”