The Duke men’s lacrosse team certainly is no stranger at the NCAA tournament’s championship weekend. For the 11th time in the past 13 years, all under 13th-year head coach John Danowski, the Blue Devils are setting up shop on the sport’s ultimate stage.
But as second-seeded Duke chases its fourth NCAA title — again all under Danowski — and prepares to face third-seeded Virginia in Saturday’s semifinal round at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, these Blue Devils (13-4) have the look of outliers at the party.
With the first season of the shot clock era drawing to a close a season that has yielded an anticipated increase in scoring and placed a premium on offensive production, Duke is wielding a formula unlike the other participants in Philly.
Penn State and Yale, who will square off in the other semifinal, are the nation’s top two scoring teams, averaging 18 and 15.65 goals per game, respectively. No one will be shocked if the Nittany Lions and Bulldogs combine for at least 35 goals on Saturday. In addition, Virginia presents the game’s sixth-ranked scoring offense (14.22 GPG).
And there is Duke, formerly a perennial threat as one of the top-scoring teams in the land, but lately a program that identifies more so at the other end of the field. With apologies to a Duke offense that clearly is no weakling, the 2019 Blue Devils are the defensive strong men at this final four.
The Blue Devils, who have ridden to glory in recent years behind explosive offenses and scoring studs such as Myles Jones, Jordan Wolf, Deemer Class and Case Matheis, now identify themselves first with the unit that gives offenses headaches in the form of scoring droughts.
“We’re more defensive-oriented this year, and that’s fine with me, because we’re still playing,” Danowski said. “Every team is different. With every team, you’ve got to figure out what you’re good at, who you’re working with and what kind of chemistry they have. That’s the fun of coaching.”
Duke rolls into Philadelphia ranked sixth in Division I in scoring defense, having surrendered 9.4 goals per game in 2019. The Blue Devils rank 12 spots ahead of Virginia (10.22 GAA). Penn State (23rd) and Yale (33rd) trail, as each has put up offensive fireworks consistently that have compensated nicely.
Duke averages a solid 12.24 goals per game — good for 21st in Division I.
While the Blue Devils are very capable of scoring in the teens, their core now resides on close defense, led by senior Cade Van Raaphorst and junior J.T. Giles-Harris, and with a two-deep rope unit led by senior defensive midfielder John Prendergast.
Van Raaphorst, a three-year starter and three-time All-ACC performer, earned his second straight USILA first-team All-American honor Thursday. At 6-foot-1, 215 pounds, with a rugged style and ability to eat up ground balls on defense and as a faceoff wing, Van Raaphorst has set the tone for the Duke D since 2017.
At 5-10, 210, Giles-Harris is a three-year starter playing the best lacrosse of his excellent collegiate career. The first close defenseman to earn ACC Defensive Player of the Year honors since the award started in 2012, Giles-Harris joined Van Raaphorst as Duke’s lone first-team representatives on the USILA All-American list.
Prendergast, another All-ACC selection and an impact defender since he showed up in Durham, has operated in tandem with Terry Lindsay for three years to give the Blue Devils stability at the short-stick position. Graduate student Peter Welsh is a fixture at long-stick midfield.
The operation starts with Van Raaphorst and Giles-Harris, who bring toughness, athleticism and tight, on-ball defense designed to harass the top two opposing attackmen.
The strategy has worked for several seasons. After finishing ranked 12th in scoring defense in 2017 and 2018 — which ended with last year's title-game loss to Yale — Duke has upgraded its performance this spring. The Blue Devils have held opponents to single-digit scoring 10 times. Duke is 9-1 in those games.
“We trust each other to cover, to make a play and to do the right thing,” Giles-Harris said. “We’ve got big guys, small guys, fast guys. We’re good at different things. We complement each other, and [assistant] coach [Ron] Caputo has done great things with us.”
“Duke recruits you to be an on-ball [defender] who plays in a system,” Van Raaphorst said. “We’ve got athletes all over the field. That allows us to play to our strengths. I cover righties and J.T. covers lefties. But we don’t worry as much as about matchups. Our strength is in our interchangeability.”
Duke’s calling card is reflected in some of its most impressive defensive showings in 2019. As Penn — which lost to Yale in the NCAA quarterfinals Sunday in a 19-18 overtime classic — was beginning its ascent toward becoming the third-highest scoring team in the country, the Quakers got clipped 17-7 by Duke.
The Blue Devils also memorably silenced Loyola 12-7 back in March, on a night in which superstar Pat Spencer was held to one goal and two assists and fellow star attackman Kevin Lindley was shut out. Back on April 13, when Virginia was missing injured star attackman Michael Kraus, Duke shut out down the entire Cavs midfield in a 12-7 victory.
The Blue Devils don’t play zone and don’t slide to help much. They are too athletic and skilled to worry much about it. Their communication in the heat of battle is exceptional.
“We hold our off-ball positions,” said senior Jack Fowler, a former LSM whom Danowski calls “the unsung hero” as Duke’s third close defenseman this year. “The less rotating we do, the better chance we are good enough to hold teams to single digits.”
“Our goal of course is to give up as few goals as possible. If we only give up seven, we’ll still look at the film and see where we should have only allowed four,” Giles-Harris said. “Maybe that’s arrogant. But we’re overly critical of ourselves.”