Duke lacrosse: Blue Devils fall short of title game alongside bitter rival

The Duke lacrosse team fell short of the NCAA Championship Game, but the Blue Devils have some company. 

Just like in men’s basketball, a National Championship is the goal for the Duke lacrosse team. But the Blue Devils fell short of that goal this season.

Duke was a consensus Top-3 team in the country and had held the No. 1 ranking for a week this season before a slip-up on the road against then-No. 5 Notre Dame.

The Blue Devils had defeated No. 1 North Carolina on April 1 in a 12-11 overtime thriller, but the Tar Heels closed out the regular season with a victory over Duke and earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

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Duke was given the No. 2 seed in the tournament and tiptoed their way to the Final Four with a 16-10 victory over High Point and a 10-9 overtime win over Loyola (Maryland).

After the Virginia Cavaliers already held off a comeback bid from the No. 1 Tar Heels on Sunday to advance to the National Championship, Duke and Maryland took the field looking to fill the final spot in Monday’s title game.

Duke lacrosse joins its rival heading back to campus

However, Duke was quickly left in the dust as the Blue Devils cut the Terps lead to one, 4-3, midway through the second quarter but then saw the No. 3 overall seed score seven straight goals, bridging the second and third quarters to take an 11-3 lead.

Maryland scored 10 of the last 12 goals after seeing its lead cut down to one early in the first half.

The loss was the Blue Devils’ most lopsided loss all season and just their third defeat of the year.

Duke recorded seven wins over Top-25 teams in the regular season, three coming in overtime.

The Blue Devils have now been in 13 Finals Fours and have played in six National Championship Games, winning three titles. Duke’s last appearance in the title game was in 2018, and its last National Championship came in 2014.

John Danowski’s squad will be an early favorite to win it all next season.