Goalie Kelsey Duryea helped Duke advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Six different Blue Devils tallied goals and sophomore goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea turned in a solid performance in the net to propel Duke to a 13-8 win against Stanford on Friday in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Notre Dame’s Arlotta Stadium.
The Blue Devils (10-7) advance to Sunday’s second round, where they will face the winner of the Notre Dame-High Point matchup to contend for a spot in the NCAA quarterfinals.
“We had so many different people contribute and being threats on offense,” head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “And huge credit to our defense – they played so well today. Stanford has a lot of threats as well, and I thought we did a great job, particularly on their top players ... Kelsey Duryea was seeing the ball really well today. I also thought the defense did a good job of making sure that the shots that she saw were pretty limited. I was really proud of our team.”
Duke established offensive rhythm early on, pouring in three scores within the first 59 seconds of the contest. Juniors Katie Trees and Brigid Smith connected for the first goal just 15 seconds in, and seniors Maddy Morrissey and Sydney Peterson followed suit for the early 3-0 advantage.
The Blue Devil defense was able to keep the Cardinal off the board until the 17:26 mark in the first period, when Rachel Ozer worked her way inside for a tally. Duke responded just minutes later as junior Chelsea Landon earned a free position opportunity and quickly passed off to classmate Kerrin Maurer, bringing the score to 4-1.
Stanford took control at the draw in the next several possessions, with Alexandra Crerend and Meg Lentz finding the back of the net twice for the Cardinal during that time. With the lead down to one, Duke’s Smith and Taylor Trimble logged a pair of man-down goals in the final minute of the half. Meredith Kalinowski of Stanford converted from the eight-meter with 20 seconds remaining on the clock to make the score 6-4 in the Blue Devils’ favor at the intermission.
“Our game plan was to try to come out and try to go right after Stanford, which we did,” Kimel said. “Stanford was very good on the draw, which put a lot of pressure on our defense. We were playing long sets on defense, and then on offense we wanted to try to settle the ball down.”
Duryea recorded four first-half saves while Katie Wiseman had two for the Cardinal on the other end.
Scoring went back and forth throughout the second half. Maurer and Ozer of Stanford swapped goals around the 25-minute mark, with Maurer’s third of the afternoon giving the Blue Devils an 8-5 advantage. Trimble registered her second on a feed from Maurer, but the Cardinal’s Crerend countered with back-to-back markers to cut the margin to two.
On the ensuing play, a caused turnover by sophomore defender Claire Scarrone and ground ball pickup by senior Taylor Virden resulted in a momentum-changing goal by junior Erin Tenneson. Stanford would add one more with just under nine minutes to go in the contest, but Duke maintained possession and tacked on three more scores on an empty net to seal the first round victory.
“We just knew what we had to do today,” Virden said. “Every day is an opportunity to be together with these 33 girls. They’re like my family. I can’t really put into words what this means.”
For the game, Stanford led in shots 26-20 and held a 13-10 advantage at the draw. The Cardinal went 14-of-14 in clear attempts on the day while the Blue Devils were 16-of-17.
Maurer finished with a game-high four goals to mark her ninth hat trick of the season, and Morrissey, Peterson, Smith and Trimble also had multiple scores. Maurer also teamed with Virden to combine for eight draw controls in the win, while Virden added three ground balls and one caused turnover. Duryea totaled nine stops in the net for the Blue Devils.
