Duke Rolls Past Notre Dame, 17-3, in ACC Opener

Sunday, March 1

Durham, N.C.

12:00 PM

Duke University

Notre Dame

Duke Rolls Past Notre Dame, 17-3, in ACC Opener

3/1/2015 4:37:00 PM | Women's Lacrosse

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. – Senior Katie Trees tallied a career-high seven points and Duke's defense held No. 16 Notre Dame scoreless for nearly 16 minutes out of the gate in a 17-3 victory on a rainy afternoon at the West Campus turf field.

Led by senior Kerrin Maurer in the circle, the fifth-ranked Blue Devils also won the draw control category by a 16-6 margin to start the ACC portion of their season 1-0. The squad improved to 6-0 overall for the program's best start since 2006.

“We've played in a lot of cold games this year and so far the weather has not been great,” said head coach Kerstin Kimel. “I thought our kids just did an awesome job of putting that all aside and doing what we had to do and playing smart. When you have games like this you have to take good care of the ball. Obviously it was sloppy at times for both teams. But I was really proud of our effort.”

Notre Dame starting goalkeeper Liz O'Sullivan made four saves to open the contest before Trees initiated a 6-0 scoring run for Duke. The Blue Devils also won eight of the game's first nine draw controls to fuel the strong start.

Cortney Fortunato got the Irish on the board with a free position goal midway through the half, but Trees and Maurer countered with two goals each to extend Duke's lead to 10-1 at the break.

Junior goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea made seven of her eight saves during the first half as she and the defense limited Notre Dame to just the one score on eight shots.

The Blue Devils wasted little time in pushing the lead to 10, as freshman Kyra Harney put away a pass from senior Taylor Trimble just 34 seconds into the second period. The Irish's Fortunato broke through for two more tallies over the next 15 minutes, but Duke's attack continued to fire on all cylinders. Senior Brigid Smith logged three of her four goals inside the final 19 minutes, and Harney, Trees and senior Erin Tenneson also found the back of the net to help the squad reach the 17-goal mark for the second consecutive outing.

Smith led all players with five ground balls while Harney picked up four as the Blue Devils totaled 24 ground balls on the day to nine by the Irish. Senior defender Gabby Moise accounted for three caused turnovers and Trees added two. Notre Dame's three scores matched a season-low output by an opponent against the Duke defense.

“We dominated the draw and ground balls,” Kimel said. “Defensively, I thought we held really strong. We really made them work for their opportunities … I can't enough about how proud I am of our team that they really played so tough. I think it says a lot about the character of our team.”

Maurer finished with a career-best eight draw controls in addition to three assists, while Trees (5) and Smith (4) both secured hat tricks. As a team, Duke outshot Notre Dame, 31-14 and went 8-of-14 in clearing attempts to a 5-of-10 clearing effort by the Irish.

O'Sullivan and Jennifer Blum split time in goal for Notre Dame, with O'Sullivan making six stops and Blum two in the loss.

The Blue Devils continue conference play Friday, March 6 in a 5 p.m. contest against Virginia Tech at Koskinen Stadium.

#GoDuke