Duke Upends Georgetown to Advance to Championship Weekend

Sunday, May 17

Newark, Del.

2:30 p.m.

Duke University

11-4

Georgetown

11-5

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Georgetown	1	0	3	2	6
Duke	3	3	5	5	16

Photo by: Nick Ieradi

Duke Upends Georgetown to Advance to Championship Weekend

5/17/2026 6:47:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score Photo Gallery

NEWARK, Del. – Duke senior Max Sloat scored four goals and the Blue Devils' defense shut down Georgetown en route to a commanding 16-6 victory in the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament quarterfinals Sunday afternoon at Delaware Stadium.

Duke advances to Championship Weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, next weekend. The Blue Devils will take on No. 1 seed Princeton in the semifinals May 23.

Against Georgetown, junior Benn Johnston scored three goals while three other Blue Devils had two tallies apiece. Overall, eight different Blue Devils scored goals.

Defensively, freshman Will Pedicano had three caused turnovers and four ground balls. Buck Cunningham had a fantastic day in goal with 10 saves.

How it Happened

Georgetown got on the board first with a goal 34 seconds into the contest. The Blue Devils put the clamps on the Hoyas for the next few minutes and tied the score on a left-handed strike from Sloat on man-up at the 9:29 mark.
Kyle Colsey gave Duke its first lead of the afternoon after a Nikolas Menendez takeaway and ground ball. Junior Mac Christmas cleared and provided the pass for Colsey for the 2-1 lead. Sloat got his second of the day 54 seconds later to send the Blue Devils into the first break up 3-1.
The Duke defense continued to dominate the Hoyas in the early minutes of the second quarter, while the Blue Devils found different ways to score at the other end. Colsey beat Georgetown goalie Anderson Moore low for his second of the afternoon and Cal Girard bounced one past Moore four seconds later to make it a 5-1 contest.
Georgetown's scoring drought stretched into 29 minutes as the Blue Devils forced the Hoyas into seven turnovers in the second quarter. Thomas Mencke capped first-half scoring for Duke with a solo effort to make it 6-1 after 30 minutes.
The Hoyas managed just 13 shots in the first half with Cunningham making eight saves.
Georgetown made it a 6-2 game 3:12 into the third quarter to end its scoring drought at 32:38.
It was all Blue Devils after that, rattling off four goals in 3:29 to stretch the lead to 10-2. Johnston had two, while Mencke and Michael Ortlieb added one apiece.
Georgetown scored two of the final three goals of the third quarter but never got any closer. Duke extended the lead to 15-5 on Sloat's fourth goal and sophomore Ian Dykes rounded out the Blue Devil scoring to bring the final to 16-6.
Girard went 10-of-19 at the faceoff dot and picked up seven ground balls.

Up Next

Duke plays Princeton in the NCAA semifinals, May 23 at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia. Faceoff is set for noon on ESPN2.

Notes

Duke improves to 46-24 all-time in NCAA Tournament play and to 15-6 in quarterfinal games.
The Blue Devils advance to the semifinals for the 15th overall and the 13th time under head coach John Danowski.
Danowski posts his 41st career NCAA Tournament win, the 495th overall win of his career and the 276th as Duke's leader.
The Blue Devils earn their first NCAA Tournament win over Georgetown.
Duke shot 42.1 percent (16 goals on 38 shots) – the second best shooting performance of the season.
The six goals scored by Georgetown are the fewest by the Hoyas all season and seven below their season average.
Thomas Mencke recorded his first career NCAA Tournament goal. He has played seven NCAA postseason games.
Charlie Johnson held Georgetown's Liam Connor to one assist when he came into the game averaging 5.0 points per game. The one point is tied for the fewest by the attackman this season and marks just the fourth game this season Connor has been held without a goal.
Nikolas Menendez held Hoya Rory Connor to one goal – 3.47 points below his 4.47 points per game average coming into the game. The one goal tied for the fewest points Connor scored all season and just the second time he's been held to a single tally.