Delaware has a history of toppling giants in the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament.
On Sunday night, the Blue Hens came up painfully shy of felling the largest.
Delaware unhappily settled for putting a serious scare in No. 1-seeded Duke, losing 12-11 in the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament’s round-of-16 at Koskinen Stadium in Durham, North Carolina.
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The Blue Devils (14-2), featuring Tewaaraton Award finalist for the top player nationally in Brennan O’Neill, were chasing the Blue Hens from the start.
Paced by all-time school scoring leader Tye Kurtz, Delaware led by as many as four in the first half en route to an 8-5 halftime lead. Duke then scored four straight third-quarter goals to take its first lead before Kurtz tied it 9-9 entering the final period.
O’Neill picked up a loose ball and fired in a left-handed shot for his first goal with 7:26 left to inch Duke ahead 11-10. Another Duke goal made it 12-10 before Mike Robinson scored for the Hens with 2:35 left to make it 12-11.
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The Blue Hens retained possession with 1:12 left after a Duke shot-clock violation but turned the ball over and Duke ran out the clock.
Delaware (13-5) had routed Marist 25-10 Wednesday night at Delaware Stadium in the 17-team tournament’s lone play-in game.
Duke will face Big Ten Tournament champ Michigan (10-6), which nipped No. 8 seeded Cornell 15-14 Sunday in Ithaca, in Saturday’s quarterfinal double-header at UAlbany’s Casey Stadium. The tournament’s semifinals and finals are May 27 and 29 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Making the eighth NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament in its history, Delaware hoped to summon another round-of-16 stunner to join last year’s 10-9 win at Georgetown and the 2007 vanquishing of Virginia that sparked the Blue Hens’ run to the Final Four. Virginia and Georgetown were No. 2 seeds.
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Delaware demonstrated from the outset it would be a handful, getting goals in the first 94 seconds by Jason Kolar and Kurtz to quickly take the lead.
The Blue Hens held a 5-3 edge after the first quarter and they eventually led by as many as four twice in the second quarter 7-3 on the second of J.P. Ward’s back-to-back goals 12:13 before halftime and Cam Acchione’s deposit that made it 8-4 with 9:15 to go. But they didn’t score again in the first half and led 8-5 at intermission.
Duke outshot Delaware 45-30 and won 15 of 26 face-offs. Kurtz had four goals and Robinson and Ward two each for Delaware. Matt Kilkeary had 15 saves in goal for Delaware.
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