Duke Lacrosse: Blue Devils Set to Play for National Championship
Duke Lacrosse took down the top seed and will now be playing for the NCAA National Championship on Monday afternoon against Yale.
It was a great regular season for the Duke Blue Devils Lacrosse team. The Dukies went 13-2 on the year but suffered a defeat to Notre Dame in the Semifinals of the ACC Tournament.
After the 14-11 defeat at the hands of the Irish, Duke bounced back with a 13-9 win in one last regular season game against Boston University in a tuneup for the NCAA Tournament.
Duke entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 4 overall seed and was set to face the Villanova Wildcats in the First Round of the Tournament.
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The Blue Devils took down the Wildcats 17-11 and moved on to face the No. 5 seed, Johns Hopkins, practically on their home turf in Annapolis, Maryland.
The road atmosphere proved to be no problem for the Blue Devils as they motored past Johns Hopkins, defeating them 14-9 and it was onto the Final Four.
It has become a tradition of the NCAA Lacrosse Final Four in Gilette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts on Memorial Day Weekend and waiting for the Blue Devils on the hallowed field that is home to the New England Patriots was the No. 1 overall seed, the Maryland Terrapins.
The Blue Devils raced out to a 6-0 lead against Maryland, but the No. 1 Terrapins would make a comeback attempt, cutting the Duke lead to three going into halftime down 8-5.
Both teams scored two goals in the third quarter and it was the Blue Devils that took control once again, outscoring Maryland 3-1 in the fourth quarter, giving Duke the 13-8 victory, catapulting the Blue Devils into the National Championship Game.
The Blue Devils were lead by hat-tricks from Justin Guterding, Joe Robertson, and Nakie Montgomery. Along with his three goals, Guterding also had three assists in the victory.
Across the field from the Blue Devils on Monday will be the No. 3 Seed Yale Bulldogs.
To get to the National Title Game, Yale took down the University of Massachuttes, Loyola Maryland, and the University of Albany.
Yale won its semifinal game in convincing fashion over Albany 20-11.
The Bulldogs were on a roll heading into the Ivy League Tournament, but fell in the Ivy League Championship Game to Cornell, but have picked up right where they left off going on their run to the NCAA Title Game.
The matchup between the No. 4 Blue Devils and No.3 Bulldogs should be a great one as the Blue Devils are going for their fourth National Championship. A win on Monday would also be Duke Head Coach John Danowski‘s 400th career victory.
The game will take place in Gillette Stadium in Massachuttes at 1:00 pm ET and the game can be seen on ESPN2.