Michael Sowers waited 1,548 days for this moment. He suited up for 55 games, tallied 346 points and broke plenty of ankles in hopes of getting the chance to play in the NCAA tournament.

Sunday evening, Sowers took the field with second-seeded Duke in the biggest game of his career. He had watched Saturday’s NCAA tournament games with his Duke roommates, and he was ready to enter the spotlight.

“I can remember, when I was in middle school and high school, this weekend just sitting on the couch and watching lacrosse all day,” Sowers said. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. It was just an excited nervous. These are the games you dream about playing as a kid.”

If there were nerves on Sowers’ end, they didn’t show. His performance matched the moment, and then some.

The Tewaaraton finalist played a part in Duke’s first six goals and finished with eight points, all in the first half, to lead the Blue Devils to a 16-10 victory over a motivated High Point team at Dorrance Field. The performance was his best of the season statistically — he tallied his highest point total since a 14-point outburst on Feb. 18, 2020.

According to Duke coach John Danowski, his star attackman needed no extra motivation.

“You don’t have to tell Michael anything,” Danowski said. “This is his first time playing in an NCAA playoff game. In the last couple weeks, Michael has played really well. High Point did a nice job trying to shut him and we had to play 5-on-5 in front of the cage. Despite getting eight points in the first half, he just wanted to do whatever he could for the team. That just shows you his humility and his strength of character.”

As special as the day may have been for Sowers, he and his Duke teammates want Sunday’s win to be part of another national title run. He’ll play in his first NCAA quarterfinal next weekend in South Bend, Ind., where he recorded his lowest point total of the season in a loss to Notre Dame. 

But this is Michael Sowers in May, the former Princeton star playing in uncharted territory.

“This is awesome, but for all of us, we have goals of playing deep into May and Memorial Day,” he said. “We’ll enjoy this one tonight and tomorrow, we’ll turn the page.”

Sowers wasted no time etching his name into the NCAA tournament stat sheet, receiving a pass from Sean Lowrie and scoring in front of the crease to open the game. Four minutes later, he came from X and curled a shot around High Point defenseman Grant Ammann to make it 2-0.

He fed Brennan O’Neill for the freshman’s first career NCAA tournament goal, and then took Ammann around the crease before diving for an improbable goal — one of his top moments of the 2021 season. He had three goals and an assist in the first quarter, and followed with a one-goal, three-assist second quarter.

His first half helped give the Blue Devils a 10-5 halftime lead — and it forced a High Point face guard throughout the second half. With Sowers largely shut out of the game, Duke’s depth provided enough of a boost to pull away from the Panthers.

“In the first half, it was more of a straight-up look, and we saw some things of film that we knew we’d be able to take advantage of,” Sowers said. “The way they played defense opened me up. The ball was really going through x, and the second half they switched what they were playing.”

Five different Blue Devils scored in the second half, including JP Basile, Sean Lowrie, Dyson Williams, Owen Caputo and Garrett Leadmon. Mike Adler added several of his 12 saves to keep the High Point offense at bay.

Sunday’s matchup wasn’t just the NCAA tournament debut for Sowers. His teammates, freshmen Brennan O’Neill and Jake Naso, each made an impact in the first do-or-die game of their college careers.

O’Neill scored his first NCAA tournament goal in the first quarter, firing home a feed from Sowers to make it 3-0. He blasted a shot off the pipe that ricocheted out of bounds before tallying his 40th goal of the season in the second quarter.

Naso, who won 62.9 percent of his faceoffs in the regular season, took 19 of 26 faceoffs against High Point. He also scored a coast-to-coast goal at the end of the first half.

“For a freshman, he continues to surprise us,” Danowski said. “He really has been incredibly consistent for us. When you can win a bunch of faceoffs and threaten at the cage a bit, it’s a plus.”

High Point pulled within five goals in the fourth quarter of its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2015. Just over two months prior, the Panthers fell to the Blue Devils by 19 goals — the most goals High Point allowed through the duration of the 2021 season.

Ashler Nolting led the High Point offense with a goal and three assists in his final college lacrosse game. Freshman Brayden Mayea added two goals and an assist in the effort. Goalie Parker Green made 12 saves to keep his team within distance in the fourth quarter.