When Duke faces No. 5 Northwestern at home on Sunday, it’ll be winding back the clock: Its in-game promotion is called “Remembering the 2010s,” a decade that saw the Blue Devils advance to six straight NCAA quarterfinals and two final fours.

It’s also a decade that, especially near its end, brought a host of new challengers to the ACC. The usual suspects are still there — namely, North Carolina and Virginia, who account for all of the current ACC’s national titles and are still top 10 teams today.

But the rest of the conference is catching up. Boston College, Notre Dame and Syracuse all finished 2019 in the top 20, and Virginia Tech has seemed close to a breakout for a few seasons. And Duke has found itself struggling for a place in the national conversation.

The Blue Devils will try to start the new decade by resurrecting the early days of the last one. After two consecutive 8-9 finishes in 2017 and 2018, Duke rebounded with an 11-8 season in 2019 but still missed out on the NCAA tournament for the third year in a row. Even worse, Duke lost star attacker Charlotte North in the offseason after she transferred to Boston College. Initially ruled ineligible due to ACC transfer rules, North was granted eligibility for 2020 in October.

The schedule did the Blue Devils no favors in 2019. In their last three weeks of the regular season, Duke faced Syracuse, Boston College, Notre Dame and North Carolina and lost each contest. The Blue Devils punched back with an upset win over the Irish in the ACC tournament quarterfinals, but they couldn’t pull off a semifinal victory over the Tar Heels.

The 2020 slate is no different. In addition to its ACC opponents, the Blue Devils will also see Navy, High Point and Penn in their non-conference schedule — all teams ranked in the preseason top 20.

The Blue Devils are young. Nearly two-thirds of their players are underclassmen, and replacing the 82 goals that North brought to the offensive attack last season will be no small feat.

Their quest to reenter the national picture begins Friday against Gardner-Webb.

Young Squads Square Off

There’s no shortage of exciting matchups this opening weekend: No. 1 North Carolina travels to No. 14 James Madison, and No. 7 Virginia takes on No. 16 Navy. But here’s one more to keep an eye on Saturday: No. 18 Colorado at No. 17 Florida.

Despite coming from opposite sides of the national lacrosse landscape — a mere 1,753 miles separate Boulder and Gainesville — the two teams have played each other three times in the past two years. Florida has won all three games, including a 16-9 win during the 2019 regular season and a 13-9 victory during the second round of the 2018 NCAA tournament.

On paper, the teams are similar. They’re both quite young. Colorado is set to start three juniors and five sophomores, and Florida has to replace more than half of its starting lineup from 2019.

They’ll also both likely be anchored by their goalies. Colorado’s fifth-year senior Julia Lisella was named the IWLCA Goalie of the Year in 2018 and ranked among the top 20 keepers in goals against average in 2019. Florida’s Sarah Reznick came to Gainesville as one of the program’s highest-touted recruits and redshirted her freshman season. She could cement herself as the program’s goalie for the next four years with a fast start.

Numbers of Note

250
Cincinnati attacker Monica Borzillo’s career point total ahead of the start of the 2020 campaign. The senior set the school record in that category as she led Cincinnati to its best season in program history in 2019, and she is set for another standout year. Borzillo and the Bearcats start their season on Friday at Kent State and then travel to Louisville to seek their first-ever win over the Cardinals.

13
Years since Maryland lost its opening game of the season. That loss came on Feb. 13, 2006, against Northwestern — unsurprisingly, also the last time those two teams played each other that early in the season. The No. 3 Terrapins open their national title defense with a trip down I-495 on Saturday to face George Mason, who went 11-7 in 2019 and advanced to the Atlantic 10 tournament title game.

24
The number of freshmen on Akron’s roster as the Zips begin their first season as a varsity team. Coach Christy Mitchell is no stranger to building programs from scratch. She helped build a club team at Bowling Green State as a student and was the first coach for two Ohio high school programs before initiating the program at Division II Walsh University. Akron plays its first game next Friday against Presbyterian College.