Tag: Duke lacrosse

Eight Duke lacrosse players named to USILA All-American teams

Brennan O’Neill and two teammates earned USILA First Team All-American honors this week as eight total Blue Devils made the national squad.

USILA released its All-American teams for the 2024 collegiate lacrosse season on Thursday, and eight Duke players made the cut in some way, shape, or form.

Attacker Brennan O’Neill and defender Kenny Brower both made the First Team for a second consecutive season, joined by midfielder Andrew McAdorey on the top team.

O’Neill finished with a team-high 81 points in just 19 games, scoring 54 goals and adding 27 assists. McAdorey added 28 goals and nine assists from the midfield.

Short stick defensive midfielder Aidan Maguire earned the team’s lone Second Team nomination, and long stick midfielder Tyler Carpenter made the Third Team. Both players finished the season with three goals, and Maguire added four assists despite his other responsibilities.

Attackers Josh Zawada, who led the Blue Devils with 45 assists, and Dyson Williams, who led the team with 61 goals, both earned Honorable Mentions. Faceoff Jake Naso joined them on that list, giving Duke eight total honorees for the season.

Duke lacrosse throttles Utah, advances to NCAA quarterfinals

The Blue Devils hosted Utah on Saturday afternoon and jumped on them from the start, scoring 7 goals in the opening period en route to a 19-7 win.

The Duke Blue Devils, the second overall seed in the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship, punched their ticket to the quarterfinals with a 19-7 win over Utah on Saturday.

The Blue Devils hosted the Utes at Koskinen Stadium for their first taste of postseason action, desperate to avenge a loss to Notre Dame in the ACC Tournament title game.

Utah got on the board first, a goal from Tyler Bradbury in the opening three minutes, but everything after that came up Blue Devils. Dyson Williams and Josh Zawada both scored in the ensuing four minutes to push Duke ahead. Utah pulled even minutes later, but Duke rattled off five goals in a four-minute span to effectively stun the Utes into submission.

Brennan O’Neill, the No. 1 pick in the recent Premier Lacrosse League draft, scored two of the five goals over the scoring spree and assisted on two of Duke’s four other first-period goals. After 15 minutes of action, the Blue Devils led by five.

Williams added another goal in the opening minute of the second, and the Utes found themselves in an inescapable hole. Back-to-back goals pulled Utah within four, but Duke tacked on three more before the end of the opening half to stretch things back to 11-5.

The rest of the game passed uneventfully outside of another scoring run from the Blue Devils, this time featuring three goals in less than a minute near the end of the third.

Williams ended the afternoon with a game-high five goals, nearly matching Utah entirely by himself. Zawada had the best game of the day, however, scoring four goals and adding four more assists to help produce almost half of Duke’s scoring.

The Blue Devils will play the winner of No. 7 Maryland and Princeton after their Saturday night battle.

Duke lacrosse takes down Syracuse, advances to ACC title game against Notre Dame

Duke men’s lacrosse booked a ticket to play Notre Dame in the ACC title match on Sunday after the Blue Devils jumped out to a 9-2 lead over Syracuse in the opening period.

Duke took down Syracuse 18-13 in the ACC semifinals on Friday night, setting up a battle with No. 1 Notre Dame on Sunday.

The Blue Devils jumped out to an immediate lead over the Orange with five goals in the first five minutes. Senior attacker Brennan O’Neill assisted two of the first three goals, one to Dyson Williams and one to Josh Zawada, and junior midfielder Andrew McAdorey scored two unassisted goals in the early going.

McAdorey ended with five goals, the most of any player on either team. He tacked on another with five minutes left to play in the first period, this time on an assist from Zawada, and he assisted Grant Mitchell on Duke’s last goal of the period in the closing seconds.

After 15 minutes of play, the Blue Devils led 9-2. The Orange tacked on three quick goals to start the second, but McAdorey and O’Neill each added a goal to keep Syracuse at arm’s length.

Duke took an 11-6 lead into halftime, and after an early Syracuse goal to open the second half, the Blue Devils promptly ended the game. Five unanswered goals, including two from O’Neill (who ended the game with four) and two from Williams, broke the game wide open. When the curtain closed on the third period, the Blue Devils led 16-7 with 15 minutes between them and the championship match.

Zawada added a goal in the opening 90 seconds of the fourth period to stretch the lead to 10, and the Blue Devils coasted from there. The Orange made a furious rally, including two goals in the final minute, but they could only pull within five.

The Blue Devils advanced to the ACC title game with the victory, where the top-ranked Fighting Irish await with the conference championship on the line.

Ten different Duke teams within the top 25 of their respective rankings

It’s been a great spring in Durham as 10 different Blue Devils teams are inside the top 25 in their respective sport’s rankings.

If you like rooting for all college sports, no matter the format or field, there are few better schools to follow this spring than Duke.

The Blue Devils have 10 teams within the top 25 of their respective rankings as of Thursday.

No team on campus is better than the softball squad. The Blue Devils have a chance to break a litany of program records this season, and they have a 30-3 record after Wednesday’s 6-1 win over Charlotte. Duke welcomes North Carolina to campus for a weekend series starting on Friday.

Duke men’s lacrosse, the No. 3 team in the country, follows close behind with a 10-2 record on the year. The Blue Devils sat atop the country for a brief period before a big loss to Syracuse a few weeks ago, but they are undoubtedly still a national contender.

The Duke women’s lacrosse team also made its respective ranking, as did both golf teams and tennis teams. Baseball, rowing, and women’s track and field also made the cuts.

Can any teams bring home a national title later this spring? Follow their progress here on Duke Wire!

Lacrosse fans were furious that Duke’s game-winning NCAA semifinal goal didn’t get called for a crease violation

Lacrosse fans were FURIOUS that Duke looked to have won its NCAA semifinal game on a crease violation.

Lacrosse fans couldn’t believe that Duke’s lacrosse team didn’t get called for a crease violation on a game-winning overtime goal over Penn State in Saturday’s NCAA semifinals.

As the game went to extra minutes, Duke midfielder Garrett Leadmon popped in the ball for a walk-off score on Penn State that won the game, 16-15, and got his team into the NCAA finals.

However, it looked like Leadmon may have stepped into the crease (the circular area around the net) on the game winner, which would’ve been a rule violation and nullified the goal.

The referees looked to have missed the call, which did not thrill the lacrosse viewers at home who felt that Leadmon had earned a penalty.

There aren’t reviewable replays in NCAA lacrosse for these situations, which didn’t allow for a second look at Leadmon’s game-winning goal.

Lacrosse fans felt that the Duke midfielder indeed crossed the crease to spark the overtime victory, and they were vocal about it on social media.

Feature image courtesy of ESPN.