The defending league lacrosse champions from 2010, the Duke Blue Devils, lost to ninth-ranked Notre Dame in an unexpected effort by the Irish after the first quarter.

   Both teams recorded 9 shots in the rough first quarter. In a Division I level sport, teams should be placing those shots at least on goal. Defensively in the first quarter Duke played solid, winning both faceoffs and having great goaltending, while their offense cashed in the only goal in the first quarter.  Notre Dame still played well; however they could not find the back of the net. Duke led the first quarter 1-0.

   In the second quarter Notre Dame took control of the game, scoring four goals compared to Duke’s lone goal. The Irish also won the ground ball game with 13 compared to the Blue Devil’s seven. Notre Dame completely dominated the quarter. One would have expected the Blue Devils to come out with a little more energy to try and maintain that lead.

   In the third quarter Duke was completely shut out of the scoring, while Notre Dame nudged their lead a little more by one goal.

   In the final quarter Duke seemed to be making a possible come-back gaining momentum from winning most of the ground balls, face-offs, and total shots taken. The Blue Devils came up short not being able to be productive enough on offense.

   Duke overall had a slight edge over Notre Dame in the ground ball game, winning 27 out of 53. The Irish had the slight lead in the shots taken category taking 38 shots compared to Duke’s 37.  The Notre Dame goalie, John Kemp, saved 14 shots out of 17. The win for Notre Dame was a nice rematch after losing a heartbreaker in overtime to the Devils the previous year.

   The Irish are 3-0 in the regular season against the Blue Devils.  Duke has really dropped the ball when it comes to be considered a lacrosse powerhouse, while Notre Dame continues to excel in their competition against top ranked teams. Many new teams that seem to have come from nowhere are slowly getting their foot in the door, being matched up with lacrosse super teams.