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from the editor

SPORTSWRAP

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Editor: Jonathan Levitan Managing Editors: Micah Hurewitz, Sasha Richie Blog Editor: Andrew Long Assistant Blog Editors: Rachael Kaplan, Ana Young Photo Editor: Alyssa Ting Associate Editors: Em Adler, Leah Boyd, Franck Djidjeu, Eric Gim, Molly Honecker, Alex Jackson, Suresh Kannoth, Campbell Lawson, Annaleise Linkenhoker, Sam Mickenberg, Robert Miron, Jake Piazza, Jonah Pilnick, Max Rego Special thanks to Editor-in-Chief Milla Surjadi, Micah Hurewitz, Sasha Richie, Photo Editors Winnie Lu and Rebecca Schneid and Graphics Editor May Fu Founded in 2007, The Chronicle’s Sports Blog, the Blue Zone, features analysis on men’s basketball, women’s basketball, football and more to supplement regular daily coverage. It can be read at: www.dukechronicle.com/section/blue-zone Founded in 1983, sportswrap is the weekly sports supplement published by The Chronicle.

Its content along with daily coverage of Duke’s 27 varsity sports can be viewed at: www.dukechronicle.com/section/sports To contact the sports department with tips or suggestions, please email Jonathan Levitan at: jrl79@duke.edu

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The Chronicle

Email Jonathan at jrl79@duke.edu 3 Duke softball’s monumental

8-9

season came to an end against UCLA in super regionals, but not before a new standard emerged in the program’s fifth year.

In a successful season highlighted by an ACC title and a Final Four appearance, Duke women’s tennis met its match against Oklahoma in the national semifinal.

5

11 Duke women’s golf’s

After taking over for Mike Krzyzewski as Duke men’s basketball head coach, Jon Scheyer signaled a new beginning by speaking for the first time with his newly assembled coaching staff.

7

After its loss to Notre Dame capped an up-and-down regular season, Duke men’s lacrosse missed out on the NCAA tournament. Our Andrew Long takes a look at the season’s unceremonious conclusion.

season came to an early end, and our Max Rego takes a look back and a look forward heading into the offseason.

Track and field hosted the ACC Championship in Durham and secured a pair of strong finishes.

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Even after a disappointing season to follow up an ACC title from 2021, Duke baseball still has plenty to look forward to, our Micah Hurewitz writes.

There’s something new and exciting going on in Duke athletics these days. Almost one year to the day after men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski— better known to most as Coach K—announced he would retire after one last season, and nearly one year into athletic director Nina King’s tenure, change is everywhere here in Durham. With it, Blue Devils across the board are finding success, and at The Chronicle, it has been our pleasure to make you feel as if you were there for every second of it.

Just this past weekend, softball broke through to super regionals in its fifth year of existence after hosting regional play in Durham for the very first time. One week earlier, women’s tennis marched all the way to the Final Jonathan Levitan Four, adding another banner to its ACC title from April. Neither team ended up raising the championship trophy, but together they set the tone for a breakneck few months of Blue Devil action leading into summer.

Track and field took that tone and ran with it, with a record 17 athletes from the program headed to Eugene, Ore., to compete on the sport’s biggest stage in June. Women’s lacrosse raced out to a 15-1 start before eventually falling in the NCAA tournament.

It wasn’t all roses for Duke, though, as a handful of teams fell short of postseason glory. Women’s golf fell by one shot in regional play in Tennessee, men’s lacrosse missed out on the NCAA tournament for the first time under head coach John Danowski and baseball found itself on the outside looking in at the ACC tournament field after winning its first conference title in 60 years back in 2021.

That’s just a glimpse of everything this spring has had to offer, and with 27 Division I sports here at Duke, it’s just the beginning of what’s sure to be a new and exciting year. A new chapter of history at Duke is being written before our eyes, and at The Chronicle, our job is to make sure that you can be right there with us for every moment of it.

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2022 | 3

SOFTBALL

(B)RUINED: Duke eliminated Against from super regionals by UCLA Bruins, Blue Devils met their match

By Micah Hurewitz Sports Managing Editor

Entering the super regional, Duke was riding the high of destroying Georgia with its high-powered offense. In Los Angeles, the Blue Devils met their ultimate match.

The 12th-seeded Blue Devils’ NCAA tournament run ended Saturday at the hands of No. 5-seed UCLA. Falling 8-2 after losing 3-2 the night prior, Duke’s fifth year as a program came to an abrupt halt thanks to UCLA’s ability to handle the Blue Devils’ top-notch hitting and uncharacteristic struggles from Duke’s pitching staff.

“I felt like they could play with anyone in the country, and we’re just a couple of plays away or a couple hits away from getting over that hump,“ Young said postgame.

The Blue Devils, who hosted the regional round in Durham for the first time in program history, had their region paired with that of UCLA as the 5-against-12 chunk of the tournament bracket. While Georgia gave them some trouble and forced a winner-take-all Courtesy of Nat LeDonne/Duke Athletics championship game back home a week ago, Despite a steady performance from Peyton St. George, Duke’s season came to an end in Los Angeles against UCLA. the biggest danger to Young’s team lay ahead of them the whole time.

“UCLA was the next opponent that we

By Em Adler had to figure out how to win a couple games Associate Sports Editor in the series against to get to the next step,” Duke’s ascension to ACC and national contention has been catch. It was a called play… That was a rally-killer right there.”

Young said about preparing to take on the continuous and steady. But in the biggest game in their five-year Blue Devil pitcher Jala Wright came on in relief for the seventh Bruins. One of the hottest teams and highest history, the Blue Devils’ crushing loss was punctuated only by and allowed two-straight soft-hit infield singles. Bruin shortstop seeds remaining—second only to No. 1-seed sharp swings from UCLA to Duke and back again.

Briana Perez then laid down a sacrifice bunt, one that should’ve Oklahoma—was not just another opponent The 12th-seeded Blue Devils closed their season Saturday in been an easy out. But Duke catcher Francesca Frelick allowed for Duke.

Los Angeles with an 8-2 loss to No. 5-seed UCLA, getting swept in Crabtree to field a ball that the latter had no chance of throwing to Despite being the natural underdog to the their first-ever super regional. After losing first in time. With the bases loaded, Wisz hit a two-run double to No. 5 seed and the most dominant program 8 a winner-take-all game to Georgia in the stretch UCLA’s lead to 5-2.

UCLA in the sport’s history, Duke definitely had the 2021 regionals, Duke closed the 2022 NCAA UCLA center fielder Maya Brady followed that with a dribbler tools to pull off the upset. Especially after 2 DUKE Durham Regional with a win in another dodown the first-base line. Perez was running from third on contact, No. 2-seed and ACC tournament champion or-die matchup with the Bulldogs to face UCLA. but Crabtree stared at home for a second before throwing to Florida State lost in its regional, seeding Following a Duke loss in game one Friday, graduate pitcher Frelick. By that point, Perez had scored, Brady was safe at first and became trivial for predicting the outcomes of Peyton St. George took the mound for the Blue Devils and struck the Bruins were more than halfway into a five-run frame. the super regionals. out five over six innings of three-run ball. Designated player The Blue Devils first got on the board in the fourth. Crabtree The Blue Devils own the fourth-best Deja Davis, first baseman Rachel Crabtree and center fielder led off with a line drive to left field for their first hit, and Foreman’s scoring offense and fifth-best batting clip in Kamryn Jackson combined to reach safely in six of their nine plate sacrifice bunt moved the runner to second. Jacobsen followed, the nation. But their opponents in the super appearances, while right fielder Caroline Jacobsen added a twohaving missed a home run in her first appearance by no more than regional round lay claim to the second-best run home run. a foot. She took a called strike on a changeup down and in from ERA mark by a pitching staff. That alone “Every year, you want to get a little bit farther than years past,” Bruin starting pitcher Holly Azevedo, then fouled off a drop ball in made for a spectacle at Easton Stadium over said Duke head coach Marissa Young. “And losing in regionals the same spot. Jacobsen fouled off two more, including a changeup the weekend as eyes across the nation tuned last year, this year [we were] just really hungry to come back and in to see if Young’s squad could push toward See SUPER REGIONAL on Page 13 make it to the super regionals. And we want to be at the [Women’s Oklahoma City or whether 2019’s national College] World Series. So this is just one step closer to that. And champion team would return for the seventhnow that a new crop of young women understand what it takes to straight season. compete at this level, [they] are going to come back hungry for that The battles with Duke hitters at the plate again next year.” delivered—a Caroline Jacobsen home run in The sixth inning was shaping up to be all Duke. The Blue Devils the bottom of the fourth tied up game two and entered the home half down 3-2, but Davis led off with a full-count showed the country that the Blue Devils were walk. Crabtree tried to sacrifice-bunt Davis to second, but popped coming back from their late-inning loss in the ball up low and in front of the plate, where UCLA catcher game one with a vengeance. But like game one, Delanie Wisz and third baseman Thessa Malau’ulu dove into each two early scores transformed into a pitching other, allowing the ball to drop for a single. performance for the ages.

After two strikeouts, Jacobsen stepped up to the plate. Jacobsen, Star pitcher Megan Faraimo, who entered who had hit a game-tying two-run home run in her previous atSaturday’s game for the final three frames, bat, had hit 12 game-tying, game-winning or walk-off home runs locked up Duke hitters with seven strikeouts. since her 2020 breakout—more than 40% of her long balls across She tossed 10 dominant innings with 17 that span. strikeouts across the two games. It was the Jacobsen spat on two balls inside. Then, suddenly, Wisz threw other side of the ball that was the dagger down to second base, where Crabtree was in between first and to the Blue Devils’ Women’s College World second, attempting a steal but nowhere near reaching safely. Davis Series hopes. was still on third; the double steal sign was likely not read properly.

UCLA and Duke also own the 12thCrabtree was all by herself, ending Duke’s last best chance. best offense and 16th-best pitching staff, Courtesy of Nat LeDonne/Duke Athletics respectively. Those narrow margins in favor of “[Did I breathe] a sigh of relief? Yeah, definitely,” said UCLA Duke entered the late innings with a manageable deficit, but head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez. “[Wisz] can throw, she can play See MATCHUP on Page 13 UCLA put the game away with a big seventh inning. catch, and that’s what that play called for, is our ability to play

4 | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2022

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2022 | 5

Scheyer, staff usher in new era

By Jonathan Levitan Sports Editor

Nearly 11 months to the day after his introduction as Duke’s next head coach, Jon Scheyer spoke to the media May 3 for the first time in his new role.

This time, it was his turn to make a few introductions of his own.

One day after officially putting the finishing touches on his revamped coaching staff, Scheyer sat down in front of the microphone in Cameron Indoor Stadium to ring in a new dawn for his program and to present each of the members of the Blue Devil bench. The long-awaited Scheyer era has officially arrived in Durham, and one thing is clear: Duke and Scheyer have everything, and more importantly everyone, that they need to succeed and to uphold the school’s winning traditions far into the future.

“I really feel it’s the best coaching staff you can have in college basketball,” Scheyer said. “The different perspectives that Mike [Schrage] and Jai [Lucas] bring along with Amile [Jefferson] and Chris [Carrawell] with the chemistry and cohesiveness that we’ve developed over this past year, and even more than that, is terrific.”

Duke’s staff looks a lot different than it did in early April, when the Blue Devils bowed out of the Final Four and Hall of Fame head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s career came to an end. Those differences go much deeper than the top job, though: Nearly every member of Scheyer’s staff is new to the program or has a new role within it, making for a strong sense of novelty within the walls of Cameron Indoor.

While Scheyer was tabbed as Krzyzewski’s successor more than a full season ago, the rest of Duke’s staff came together in April, beginning with former assistant coach Nolan Smith’s departure for Louisville. Smith’s decision was the first domino, with the Blue Devils subsequently bringing on former Elon head coach Mike Schrage as special assistant to the head coach, promoting Amile Jefferson to assistant coach and, most recently, hiring Kentucky’s Jai Lucas as assistant coach.

Scheyer is making quite the leap and clearly has a tough act to follow, but each of those additions—along with associate head coach Chris Carrawell—will be adjusting to a new role as Duke’s new skipper takes the wheel. Young and diverse in their experiences, they form a group that appears especially ready to tackle a challenging (and sometimes confusing) time in college basketball.

“Not only is it a new era of Duke basketball, but it’s really a new era of college basketball,” Scheyer said.

Everybody on the coaching staff is in a new situation in their own right, but perhaps none more than Lucas, whose hiring was made official May 2. At 33 and already one of the nation’s best-respected recruiters, he figures to pick up right where Scheyer and Smith left off on the recruiting trail. His hiring is unusual, though, simply in the sense that he brings something rare to Duke’s staff: an outside perspective.

Despite his deep family roots in Durham, Lucas joins a short and long-vacated list of Blue Devil coaches to have never donned a Duke jersey.

“I think it’s just a testament to Coach Scheyer, and what he’s trying to do and

Courtesy of Duke Athletics

New head coach Jon Scheyer leads a revamped coaching staff heading into 2022-23. what he’s trying to continue to grow in the program,” Lucas said of bringing an outside perspective to Duke.

On the other end of matters, Carrawell— the only coach to reprise his 2021-22 mantle—has seen his role change in a far less tangible way as the oldest of Duke’s four coaches and what Scheyer called his “rock.”

Scheyer chimed in during Carrawell’s time at the podium Tuesday, describing the 44-year-old as “somebody that you want in the trenches with you.”

Moments later, Carrawell shared his advice for Scheyer on the challenge of filling Krzyzewski’s shoes: “Be you.”

So far, Scheyer has done just that, setting himself up for success in the modern NCAA landscape by surrounding himself with the right people and by not overwriting a

program that has, to this point, withstood the test of time.

“There’s obviously a lot of great things that we’re doing, like I said, the fact that we’re adjusting to our program without Coach K being the head coach and then with the change in college basketball,” Scheyer said. “The structure that we’ve had, you do need to adapt, you do need to adjust, but we want to be thoughtful about it.”

Elsewhere on Scheyer’s staff, Jefferson finds himself as a full-time coach less than a year after returning to Duke as director of player development and Schrage takes on a broad advisory role, telling the room that his job for Scheyer entails “whatever he needs.” Through a captivating balance of See SCHEYER on Page 14

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MEN’S LACROSSE

Column: Duke’s season reaches abrupt end Editor’s note: This article was originally published May 9 following NCAA tournament selection and prior to the NCAA tournament.

That was rather unceremonious, wasn’t it?

Missing the postseason is certainly unceremonious, but for Duke, a storied men’s lacrosse program with three national titles, Division I’s all-time winningest coach and the top recruits in the 2020 and 2021 classes on its roster, it’s monumental for all the wrong reasons.

The Blue Devils were trapped in purgatory ahead of the NCAA tournament selection show.

Having dismantled preseason top dog Virginia by nine goals and beaten Andrew Long rival North Carolina twice by a combined 17 goals, the talent of this group was evident.

It lost six games, though. An early defeat to Penn—the recently crowned Ivy League champions and No. 3-seed for the tournament—and a pair of losses to Notre Dame were understandable and, to some extent, rational. Losses against Syracuse, Loyola and Jacksonville, with due respect, were not.

The problem with this inconsistency was that it became difficult to figure out how good this Duke team actually was. When the postseason loomed and eight at-large bids were at stake, that problem turned into a bonafide catastrophe for the Blue Devils.

The NCAA selects its tournament teams for men’s lacrosse based on a variety of factors, presumably including RPI, a ratings

Courtesy of Nat LeDonne/Duke Athletics

For the first time under head coach John Danowski, Duke missed the NCAA tournament. system that takes strength of schedule and those of a team’s opponents into account.

Teams who play the greatest number of difficult games have the highest RPIs, and more often than not those teams make the postseason. It’s important to note that RPI is an interesting choice for lacrosse in the first place since there are so few games in a season.

The men’s tournament field is notoriously small, sitting at just 18 teams.

Ten of these are determined from automatic bids, usually the winners of various conference tournaments. The other eight are determined by a selection committee,

which, with qualified teams excluded, selects the remaining eight teams.

Duke was ranked No. 7 in RPI. With Penn already qualified, that moved Duke up to sixth in line. Add in Maryland’s Big Ten win, and it was fifth. But by the time the entire field was revealed, head coach John Danowski and his Blue Devils were notably absent.

That exclusion from the tournament field might be for a variety of reasons. On one hand, Duke didn’t put itself in a position to be a tournament lock. In a must-win game against Notre Dame on the last day of the regular season, it squandered a 14-10 lead to

lose 16-14 after a scoreless fourth quarter.

Had it won, this conversation would likely be quite different.

I’ll hold my hands up and admit that my preseason judgments were a tad optimistic, predicting the Blue Devils to be national champions. But Duke didn’t win the games it needed to and still wound up among the top teams in RPI, and it didn’t seem to matter.

If this season’s NCAA selection showed us anything, it’s that not only is RPI inaccurate and determined on an insufficient sample but that the body that uses it to form its postseason bracket does so inconsistently and selectively.

The Ivy League was good this season, but it shouldn’t have six teams competing for the title in East Hartford, Conn. Duke, and especially Notre Dame, will no doubt feel aggrieved that Harvard, a team that sat 15th in RPI ahead of selection, made it ahead of either one. The Fighting Irish closed out the season on a six-game win streak and gave Maryland its closest run of the campaign, losing by just two. While Duke not making the NCAA tournament may be understandable, Notre Dame missing out is inexcusable.

The point is this: First and foremost, Duke will not play this postseason. Part of this is its own fault, but it’s also because of the gross incongruence of a metric that is outwardly meant to streamline the selection process and root a subjective system in statistics. Instead, the NCAA snubbed two lacrosse behemoths, both of whom could have won a title, represented only one ACC team and, most ironically, See M. LACROSSE on Page 14

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WOMEN’S TENNIS

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STOPPED IN

Duke’s title bid ends in Final Four

By Sasha Richie Sports Managing Editor

Just as the ball bounces back and forth on the court, so did the momentum of Duke’s Final Four match against Oklahoma.

However, every slight edge there was to take, the Sooners took, and in the most crucial battles, they proved ready to fight, ultimately sending Duke home with its championship dreams cut short.

In rainy Champaign, Ill., the third-seeded Blue Devils took the court indoors against No. 2-seed Oklahoma, a team they had lost to in January during their nonconference slate. After losing the doubles DUKE 3 point and securing singles points, 4 three OU it all came down to court six. There, Duke graduate student Eliza Omirou faced Sooner freshman Emma Staker.

Though she lost the first set in a bagel, Omirou rallied to take the second set 7-5. However, she couldn’t keep the momentum going, and another 6-0 set ended Duke’s season with a 4-3 loss.

“It’s tough to win four singles matches against a team that’s top-two, three, four in the country all year, and I think that we fought our butts off and gave ourselves some chances,” head coach Jamie Ashworth said after the match. “[Omirou] gave us an opportunity to keep competing, and I thought we did a really good job with the singles, to be honest with you, and just came up against a team that played better than us today.”

With both junior Chloe Beck and freshman Ellie Coleman yielding to their opponents relatively quickly, the Sooners needed just one of the remaining Blue Devils—Omirou and senior Kelly Chen—to lose their match. Having been overwhelmed by Staker in the first set, it seemed that Omirou would do so quickly. The Cyprus native was a late addition to the singles lineup, replacing senior Margaryta Bilokin, and had only played a handful of singles matches this year before being tasked with carrying on the Blue Devils’ season.

However, some seesawing play in the second set saw Omirou and Staker tied 3-3, and when Omirou got the break to go up 4-3

and again two games later to go up 5-4, Duke looked to have a shot. A series of errors let Staker tie it at 5-5, but Omirou stayed calm and collected, keeping it conservative until she found an opportunity and broke to take a 6-5 lead.

At 40-40 set point, Omirou looked in complete control, making Staker race back and forth until fatigue got the best of her, and a desperate return set up Omirou perfectly to take the set.

That was the end of the road, though, as Staker came back in the third set with a vengeance. Chen, in vintage form, came in clutch in her second set, winning 7-5 after taking the first 6-3 to get a third point on the board for the Blue Devils. Just like that, Omirou and Staker were the last pair still playing, but Staker quickly took a 2-0 lead.

Then, after going up 30-0 in the third game, Omirou conceded five straight points to fall behind three games, and errors and nerves set in. She would go on to win just two more points across the final three games of Duke’s season.

‘It’s not an easy position that [Omirou] was put in the last couple of days,” Ashworth said.

“But at the same time, that’s what you work for in practice…. And I knew that she would fight, I knew that she would compete. And it’s a heck of an effort the last few days that she had here in Champaign to give us what we needed and to give us that chance to keep playing, and I couldn’t be prouder of what she’s done.”

Earlier in the night, Omirou and her doubles partner Bilokin formed the bright spot in a perplexing doubles slate, as the veterans in the third pairing were the only Blue Devils to come out on top. They easily defeated the duo of Staker and sophomore Dana Guzman 6-2, with Bilokin hitting a laser directly at Staker to seal the match.

For Duke’s other two pairs, things didn’t go quite as well. The top pairing of senior Georgia Drummy and sophomore Karolina Berankova faced an early 4-1 deficit but clawed its way back to get within one. Even in that rally though, the duo didn’t look to have things figured out against sisters Carmen and Ivana Corley, and they gave up two games in a row, falling 6-3.

Meanwhile, Coleman and Beck, playing

Courtesy of Duke Athletics Kelly Chen clinched Duke’s big Senior Night win against then-undefeated UNC in April.

Craig Pessman

Emma Jackson gave Duke a crucial singles win in Duke’s Final Four loss to Oklahoma. close to the net and aggressive, held most of the power in their matchup, forcing senior Alexandra Pisareva and junior Layne Sleeth to work for every point and making clutch plays to tie at 5-5. However, a string of unforced errors left the Blue Devils without the doubles point.

“I thought today we really put ourselves in a position to win the doubles point and it was tough. They played a little bit better when they needed to, in the doubles,” Ashworth said.

After losing the doubles point, there was still a path to victory for the Blue Devils, with Drummy dominating her first set against Carmen Corley 6-0. The Dublin, Ireland native, who had beaten her same Sooner counterpart 6-0, 6-0 in the teams’ regular-season meeting, then took the first game of the second set to bring her streak to 19 games. Though the Oklahoma junior eventually got on the board against Drummy, the Blue Devil still took the second set 7-5 with relative ease, getting Duke its first point.

On court three, freshman Emma Jackson faced Ivana Corley. After going up 6-5 in the first set, Jackson navigated a tough lob to set up set point and took care of business to win the

set 7-5. In the second set, she won five straight games to rally from a 3-0 deficit, proving her never-quit spirit once again. Though her opponent grabbed one more game, Jackson secured Duke’s second point of the night after a tough shot forced a wide return.

“She’s definitely grown as a person,” Ashworth said of Jackson’s season. “I know that she was disappointed with how she played yesterday. But knowing Emma and knowing the kind of pattern that she’s had all season, I wasn’t worried about her at all. And I knew she would bounce back and have a great match.”

Now, after a heartbreaking end to an outstanding season, the Blue Devils have a lot to look forward to. With players like Jackson working their way up the ladder and Drummy returning with her extra year of eligibility, there’s sure to be more success in Duke’s future, despite the current anguish.

“There’s 200-whatever, 260 Division I teams, and there are four left, and they gave themselves a chance,” Ashworth said. “They grew and they got better. And they became better as individuals, and became a better team along the way. So, we couldn’t be prouder of the effort that they put in.”

Courtesy of Duke Athletics Duke took down Virginia 4-2 in Rome, Ga., to win its first ACC title in a decade.

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2022 | 9

CHAMPAIGN

Magic runs out against Oklahoma

By Jonathan Levitan Sports Editor

With just one match to play in Saturday evening’s Final Four showdown in Champaign, Ill., and Duke locked in a 3-3 tie with Oklahoma, the Blue Devils found themselves in familiar territory.

One night earlier, it took a classic Kelly Chen clincher for Duke to keep its season alive. In April, freshman Emma Jackson delivered the Blue Devils to the brink of an ACC title with the deciding match in the conference semifinals. Just a week before that, Chen had held on in singles to unseat undefeated North Carolina on the final night of the regular season, kicking off Duke’s remarkable run in earnest.

But as the final set came to an end on court six, it was the Sooners who mobbed the court, surrounding freshman hero Emma Staker in celebration. Across the net, the Blue Devils gently crowded around graduate student Eliza Omirou, who had come just one set away from sending Duke to its third-ever NCAA title match.

The magic, just a moment too early, had finally run out for this Blue Devil team.

“Couldn’t be happier for them,” Ashworth said of his team after the match. “It’s hard in this moment for them to understand that, but it’s a team that put two banners up there back at Duke, and should be really proud of that.”

In hindsight, the Blue Devils—who carried a 12-match winning streak spanning nearly two months into the fateful Saturday showdown—do have plenty to be proud of entering the offseason, beginning with what was a valiant comeback effort against the Sooners. After dropping a hard-fought doubles point to start the match and dropping three first sets on the singles side, Oklahoma held all the cards early on.

Searching for an edge, the Blue Devils nearly got it on court one from junior Chloe Beck, who fought back after dropping the first set 6-0 to take control in the second. On court five, freshman Ellie Coleman came storming back in the second set in a furious attempt to force a third,

but Sooner star Layne Sleeth came back to finish off Beck while Coleman’s comeback bid against senior Alexandra Pisareva fell just short.

Omirou fought to give Duke the chance it needed, though, rebounding from a shutout first set to force a decisive third set for all the marbles. The rest is history, but the Blue Devils had a real shot after playing from their heels all evening long.

“They gave us a great opportunity, a great ride,” Ashworth said of his team. “And I told them after, from where I stand as a spectator a lot of times, it was great to see how much they developed and great to see how much better we got over the course of the year.”

Duke did appear to improve mightily throughout the year, flipping a switch after a pair of losses to Florida State and Miami in late March. That team, still too early in conference play to judge, didn’t yet resemble the juggernaut it would become on its journey to Champaign.

Prior to facing Oklahoma, the Blue Devils hadn’t lost since that Sunshine State road trip. Their season featured a conference championship and a Final Four appearance, with these Blue Devils realizing their potential to an extent that didn’t seem possible in March.

“There were a lot of questions that needed to be answered about our team and they took it upon themselves and challenged themselves and really responded to that adversity,” Ashworth said. “They could have gone two ways with it, and I’ve told them over and over again that they chose the tougher path, and they were able to reap the rewards of that path.”

Duke’s stellar spring hinged on success on the doubles side, with the crucial early point often proving all-important late in the season. That charge was led by Omirou and senior Margaryta Bilokin—a pairing that Ashworth called “a team that we never envisioned playing together”—who grew into Duke’s most reliable doubles duo in April and May. After dropping four straight sets mid-season, Omirou and Bilokin haven’t lost together since April 1, rattling

Courtesy of Duke Athletics Behind Georgia Drummy’s decisive singles win, Duke defeated Georgia to secure its ticket to Illinois.

Craig Pessman

With senior Kelly Chen’s singles win against Oklahoma, Duke arrived in a familiar winnertake-all situation for the second-straight night. off 11 wins in that span.

The two veterans did their part against the Sooners, making short work of Oklahoma’s Staker and Dana Guzman in a 6-2 win.

Omirou, who notably has seldom played singles for Duke, couldn’t seal the deal later on, but she did what the Blue Devils have so often been able to rely on her to do by giving her team a chance at the doubles point.

“They’ve been playing really good doubles,” Ashworth said of Bilokin and Omirou. “When [Bilokin] can control the court with her forehand and mix in some lobs, and [Omirou] is really effective at the net, and I thought they played well, and they played smart, and we’ve kind of leaned on them the last couple matches to come up big for us. And they’ve done a good job with that.”

It’s nearly impossible to reflect on Duke’s season, of course, without mentioning the resurgence and ever-growing legend of Chen. The senior put together a remarkable run down the stretch, highlighted by her Senior Night takedown of North Carolina and shining moment in Friday night’s Elite

Eight win against the Wolfpack.

At every juncture, it seemed like business as usual for Chen, who has made a career at Duke out of clutch moments. She got one final big moment Saturday, and while it didn’t tip the scales in Duke’s favor, she came through, as always.

“I mean, this is the time that [Chen] cherishes and works for and really has shined in throughout her career,” Ashworth said.

“And win or lose, she’s someone that you want in those moments…. Tennis is such an individual sport, it’s rare to get someone that really cherishes that team stuff.”

It’s difficult to believe, looking back down from the heights Duke reached, that these Blue Devils were ever underdogs. But before they put the Tar Heels on notice, before they marched their way to a conference title and before they punched their ticket to Champaign, they had to come a long way.

Before it was all said and done, the Blue Devils proved themselves to be a special team—magical, if you will. And although that magic ran out a moment shy of greatness, it was a magical ride nonetheless.

Courtesy of Duke Athletics The Blue Devils advanced to the Final Four with a thrilling 4-3 win against ACC foe N.C. State.

10 | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2022

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2022 | 11

WOMEN’S GOLF

Blue Devils fall short in thrilling NCAA Regional

By Max Rego

challenge, which pays off in key spots. Three of her four highest finishes this season took place at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate, the East Lake Cup and in regional play, with the fourth being her first collegiate victory at the Chattanooga Classic in late March.

The first three events all featured loaded fields, indicating that the Clements High School alum brings her best when her best is required.

“I just had to keep on going and keep focusing knowing that every single hole was a birdie chance,” Chen told GoDuke after Tuesday’s second round.

Going into her junior year, Chen still has room to grow, but the foundation is there.

Her smooth tempo and aggressive mindset are ideal building blocks to lean on, and her performance out of the gates in the fall is sure to be noteworthy.

Associate Editor

After a fifth-place finish at NCAA Regionals, the Blue Devils’ offseason starts a few weeks earlier than usual.

Even with that being the case, it was a long journey to this point, as Duke competed in 10 events—11 if you count the Chattanooga Classic, in which Anne Chen, Rylie Heflin and Megan Furtney played as individuals— dating back to September.

From Gina Kim turning pro to Furtney being a consistent member of the lineup again, there was a lot to take away from head coach Dan Brooks’ 38th year at the helm.

Here are three of the main storylines from regionals and the season as a whole.

Brinker struggles with par fives at regionals

Not every golfer has one particular skill that separates them from the rest, but sophomore Phoebe Brinker’s length and accuracy with the driver is, without question, her strong suit. She hovers around 280 yards off the tee, which gives her a leg up on long par fours and par fives.

Despite all that, Brinker struggled a bit on the par fives at regionals, going -2 on 12 par-five opportunities over three days.

For reference, Alabama’s Polly Mack, the individual medalist from the week, went -8 on the par fives en route to 12-under overall and a four-shot victory. Taking care of holes four, seven, 14 and 18 was crucial in how things shook out at Legends Club.

After the final round Wednesday, though, Brooks emphasized how tricky the par

Courtesy of Lindy Brown/Duke Athletics

Despite a late rally, Duke fell one shot short of Texas A&M and NCAA qualification. fives were, saying, “If you’re trying to get that birdie, it’s easy to drift off into the rough and now you get in a tough spot.”

Oftentimes, taking on risk is required to give yourself chances at birdie, and the par fives at regionals fit the bill.

“A great par five is one that just begs you to go, because it doesn’t look that bad, or it does give you an opportunity to birdie, or even eagle, if you can just hit this reasonably difficult shot,” Brooks said.

Getting off the tee is one thing, but strong long-iron play is what ultimately gets the job done on reachable par fives. As her win at the ACC Championship showed, Brinker

is a prolific ball-striker, and with another summer of improvement, par-five scoring once again projects to be a major advantage for the Delaware native as a junior.

Chen makes the sophomore leap

As a freshman, Chen had a scoring average of 74.2, with a low round of 71— solid stats that indicated promise. During her sophomore campaign, the Texas native backed up that encouraging debut with a scoring average of 72.8, including four rounds in the 60s and a low round of 66 at the Chattanooga Classic.

Chen is never one to back down from a

Running it back

Returning an entire roster is extremely rare for this program. Not since the 201213 season has Brooks brought back his entire unit from the previous year, but that will indeed be the case in 2022-23.

Shepherd and Furtney, both juniors, are the longest-tenured Blue Devils, and incoming freshman Andie Smith will be the only new face once the fall rolls around.

It’s been a decade since this has happened, but there might be a blueprint for how much the Blue Devils will improve based on the spring of 2013. That year, Duke returned six members of a group See TAKEAWAYS on Page 14

TRACK & FIELD

Duke soars again at ACC Championships

By Jonathan Levitan

Although Duke entered the final day of competition with a 9.5-point lead on the women’s side, the Hurricanes stormed back into the picture Editor’s note: This article was originally published with 75 points to take back the conference crown May 15 prior to the NCAA East Regional May 25from the Blue Devils. That left Duke fighting with 28.

Florida State and N.C. State in a tight race for Approaching the end of a successful outdoor second place. season, the Blue Devils got the chance to compete In 2021, the Blue Devils won the women’s against the rest of the ACC in Durham—and they 4x400m relay to claim their first ACC didn’t disappoint.

Championship in dramatic fashion, using the For the first time since 2011, Duke played host literal last-gasp effort to tie Florida State at to the ACC Outdoor Championships, welcoming the top with 110 points apiece. While a repeat each of the conference’s 14 other schools to Morris title was out of the question heading into the same event Saturday, the stakes were still plenty high: Duke sat at 90.5 points, trailing the Seminoles (95 points) and the Wolfpack (91 points) with one last chance to surge up the scoreboard.

“The girls knew what we had to do,” Wilbourn said of the women’s 4x400 relay team. “They knew what was at stake.”

With those stakes came an apparent sense of urgency, as junior Jenna Crean fought to take an early second-leg lead. From there, freshman Megan McGinnis gained separation from Clemson and Miami to set graduate student Lauren Hoffman up with a sizable bell-lap lead— one that she would hold on to in style, crossing the finish line in 3:33.88 to set a new facility record at Morris Williams.

Duke’s victory in the relay, coupled with Florida State’s fifth-place finish in the event, pushed the Blue Devil women into second place.

That final gold medal for the Duke women made the biggest splash, but they needed every one of Courtesy of the ACC their four wins, two silvers and handful of bronzes Graduate student Erick Duffy took gold in the pole vault as the Blue Devil men secured to sneak past the Seminoles by 1.5 points, their highest ACC finish since 2015.

100.5-99.

Sports Editor

Williams Stadium for the three-day event. When Saturday night rolled around and the festivities came to a close, the Blue Devil women had fallen just short of defending their title from a year ago with a second-place finish to Miami while the men’s team had collected its best placement since 2015, tying with Clemson for sixth place.

“Anytime you are, on the women’s side, in it to win it at the very end, you’ve done something special,” director of track and field and cross country Shawn Wilbourn said. “And with the women’s side, all the way to the last couple of events we still had a chance to win.”

Courtesy of Duke Athletics

The Blue Devil women raced into second place with a gold medal in the 4x400m relay.

“I think our performances over the past couple of meets, couple of years has kind of raised our expectations and our women expect to win every time going in,” Wilbourn said. “So we got second, a year ago we would have been ecstatic to get second, and we’ve raised the bar to where now, we expect to win.”

Continued growth paid off for the men’s team, as it marched its way to its best finish in seven years.

Graduate student Erick Duffy highlighted that strong performance with Duke’s first men’s pole See TRACK AND FIELD on Page 14

12 | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2022

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2022 | 13

BASEBALL

Column: Duke’s future remains bright

A year ago, the Blue Devils embarked on a remarkable journey from a middleof-the-pack ACC program—one that had only dipped its toes in the postseason—to conference champions and a legitimate threat to climb higher.

The month of May provided something special to head coach Chris Pollard’s squad in 2021. Twelve straight wins that included those that sent Duke into the ACC tournament and then some followed up a mediocre start. Prior to that stretch, I wrote a column about how Micah Hurewitz that team could blast off if and only if the stars aligned. And that they did. Star hitters Joey Loperfido and RJ Schreck propelled the remarkable end-of-season run that got Duke its first ACC title in 60 years. Despite losing several key leaders to the draft, the retooled 2022 team had high aspirations—maybe some that would require a historic longshot story to repeat itself.

“We take a lot of pride in where we started and where we are right now,” Pollard said before the season began. “We’re not done. And there’s some goals that we’ve had for this program for the last several years that we haven’t fulfilled yet.”

After finishing at 22-32, nearly the exact opposite win-loss record from the prior year, the 2022 Blue Devils will have to wait to reach those goals, namely an appearance in Omaha.

Bringing in a top-10 recruiting class is no easy feat, and is truly a testament to what Pollard has done in his 10 years in Durham. But he did it this past offseason with the commitments

of shortstop Alex Mooney, pitcher Jonathan Santucci, outfielder Devin Obee and nine others. Mooney, a top 2023 draft prospect, also said preseason that he has high aspirations for his time at Duke.

“Watching Duke win the ACC championship really fired me up and made me want to go be a part of that, and hopefully help take our team to Omaha,” he said.

This year’s team fell short of possibly the first step in that path—simply qualifying for its conference tournament. The month of May—which saw Duke go 14-2 in 2021—left this season’s younger, less-experienced team sputtering to a 4-10 finish and the secondworst conference record. While a year ago the Blue Devils celebrated an Erikson Nichols walkoff to cap a Duke sweep, this time around was instead marked by a crushing sweep at the hands of the same conference foe, Virginia Tech.

The wonders of last year—18 homers from Schreck, understated consistency from Luke Fox and Marcus Johnson and leadership from numerous starters who traveled to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt in a 2019 super regional and finish one win away from Omaha—were passed on to the younger class of Blue Devils, less acquainted to the trials and tribulations of realizing those goals.

Fittingly, however, they eked out a win against N.C. State when the seniors—the freshmen of that super regional team—were honored for the final time at Jack Coombs Field. Chris Crabtree, Wil Hoyle and Schreck were thrilled to take on the roles of leaders and mentors, and while their year didn’t end as they had hoped, the senior class gave something more meaningful to the younger Blue Devils.

SUPER REGIONAL

groundout, UCLA put two in scoring position with a bloop single and a sharp grounder that just barely stayed fair of third base. St. George, never one to lose a highleverage moment, induced a soft groundout to strand the runners. The score stood at 2-0 midway through the do-or-die affair.

At the plate, Duke couldn’t match Friday’s hot start. By the end of the second inning, four of the first seven Blue Devil hitters had fallen into two-strike counts, with three striking out. Duke, an excellent fastball-hitting team, struggled heavily with Azevedo’s changeup and slider.

The loss marks the final games in blue and white for St. George, Jacobsen, Crabtree, Foreman, first-team All-ACC shortstop Jameson Kavel and starting left fielder Kyla Morris. Shelby Walters, last year’s ERA leader who has been out since February with a foot injury, is also leaving Duke.

That makes eight career All-ACC selections saying goodbye to Durham.

“I’m really proud of my kids, I felt like

FROM PAGE 3 down and away, but she wasn’t going to swing over another low pitch. Azevedo sent a drop ball down and away, and the sound off of Jacobsen’s bat left no doubt: a two-run home run, tying the game at 2-2.

UCLA struck back in the fifth, with a single, steal and two-out double off the top of the center-field wall from Wisz. That gave the Bruins a 3-2 lead.

The Blue Devils opened with excellent pitching, as St. George retired the side on 12 pitches. She blinked in the second inning, allowing a two-strike leadoff single, steal, walk and a wild pitch to put runners at the corners with no outs. She managed to sit down the next three batters, but not before UCLA opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly.

The Bruins’ bats sparked again in the fourth with Brady going the opposite way for a one-out solo home run. After another

Courtesy of Nat LeDonne/Duke Athletics

In just five years, head coach Marissa Young has turned the Blue Devils into a contender on the national stage.

Courtesy of Duke Athletics

Duke fell short of ACC tournament qualification, but freshman Alex Mooney led a young group primed to carry the Blue Devils into the future.

Duke baseball is establishing a culture— carefully crafted by a long-term coaching staff and a batch of players that understand what winning means. The 2022 seniors were there for that super regional, a perfect game, a dominant start to a season cut short and an ACC title.

Then they were there for the arrival of the future generation, one determined as ever to pick up where the prior group left off.

“We still kind of live with that sting of getting close and not getting over the hump.

And I think there’s a hunger there to break through that door,” Pollard said in February.

That door is made of concrete in the ACC,

with several top-10 teams and a plethora of pro talent.

Winning just over 40 percent of your games and going 10-20 in conference hurts. A lot. And in retrospect, not much about 2021’s Blue Devils looked like a championship team either, that is until two-thirds of the way through the season.

This year’s squad just never got that spark, but Pollard may have the right mix of ingredients for Duke to break through that wall before long.

High expectations will surely return come next spring, but with a year of experience under their belts, the Blue Devils yet to celebrate their 21st birthdays will be knocking on that door.

they could play with anyone in the country, and we’re just a couple of plays away or a couple hits away from getting over that hump,” said Young. “And so I think that this is going to continue to build confidence in the players returning, and hopefully continue to help us on the recruiting trail, for people to see that Duke softball can compete at this level.”

“Another gutsy performance from [St. George], giving everything she has for this team and this program,” Young said despite having her star pitcher’s Duke career come to a close with a loss. “And gave us a chance to fight all the way through.”

With top hitters Jameson Kavel and Kristina Foreman going a combined 1-for-11 across both games, the pitchers were desperately needed to quell the trouble. The five-run seventh inning of Saturday’s game was the opposite of what Young ordered up. What was once another tight game at 3-2 became a parade at the plate for Duke’s foes.

Blue Devil opponents exceeded UCLA’s eight-run mark only two times this season, one of which was against world series-bound Florida back in February.

The two-headed monster of UCLA had exactly the antidote for the poison Duke used to neutralize so many of its opponents this year.

In turn, the Oklahoma City-bound Bruins were able to slay the hungry Blue Devils, still eager to make history yet again.

MATCHUP FROM PAGE 3 the Bruins earned them both the No. 5 seed and the series sweep.

The Duke staff previously allowed a practically unassailable 2.39 runs per game, but graduate student Peyton St. George and sophomore Jala Wright fell short in the circle when it mattered most. The pair, which finished the year with 2.07 and 2.09 ERAs, respectively, surrendered a collective six runs in the final three innings of their season.

Courtesy of Nat LeDonne/Duke Athletics

Duke’s win against Georgia in a winner-take-all elimination game in Durham pushed the Blue Devils to their first-ever super regional.

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14 | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2022

SCHEYER

TRACK AND FIELD

FROM PAGE 5

FROM PAGE 11

change and continuation, there is a strong coaching identity brewing in Durham, one that fully embraces the program’s new dawn.

That dawn starts with the 2022-23 season, of course, with a roster that Scheyer is admittedly excited about. After the recent transfer additions of Kale Catchings and Ryan Young—Scheyer announced their signings in his opening statement—most of that roster is set in stone.

As his first season and summer of preparation approaches, Scheyer—who laughed with, poked fun at and reminisced with his team for all to see—appears plenty comfortable at the helm and with the staff around him. If basketball really is about its relationships, as all five speakers hinted at during the availability, then the Scheyer era would appear to be off to a very good start before it ever truly begins.

vault gold medal since 1967, while junior Beau Allen claimed silver in the high jump.

“On the men, we’re chipping away, we’re getting better,” Wilbourn said. “Every time we go into a championship meet we get a little bit better, and I’m happy with being sixth on the men’s side, it’s better than we were indoors, it’s better than we were last year and the goal for the men is just to keep improving.”

When it comes to individual performances, though, perhaps nobody stands out more than Erin Marsh, who took her first-ever ACC outdoor gold medal in the heptathlon with 5,946 points—good for a new personal, school and facility mark while making her the first Blue Devil woman to ever win the heptathlon at the outdoor championships.

The graduate student also added a bronze medal in the 100m hurdles, prompting high praise from Wilbourn.

“Words can’t describe how valuable she’s been to our program and her competitiveness, her leadership as well as just her athleticism,” Wilbourn said. “She’s a once-in-a-decade type athlete.”

One year earlier, Wilbourn had yet to officially step into his current role, serving as the interim director from July 2020 to June 2021. That didn’t stop him from achieving great things in his first season at the helm, earning ACC Women’s Outdoor Coach of the Year after leading the Blue Devils to the title.

Still, it’s clear that the program has come a long way in its first official year under Wilbourn, with landmark placements for both the men and women this past weekend in Durham. With an emphasis on teamwork and a focus on “getting points from all the event groups,” Duke’s success at ACCs is the most recent example of Wilbourn molding his program into a very well-rounded one.

“The goal is to get through regionals and get as many kids qualified for [the NCAA Outdoor Championships] as possible and see where we can end up nationally,” Wilbourn said.

I think my goal was from the beginning to think about October of ‘22, to feel like we’re in a position to pursue a national championship.

Courtesy of Duke Athletics

One day after officially joining Duke’s coaching staff as an assistant, Jai Lucas spoke alongside head coach Jon Scheyer at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

M. LACROSSE

TAKEAWAYS

FROM PAGE 7

FROM PAGE 11

broke its own precedent.

The Blue Devils should be preparing for a few more games, but are instead done for the season. Notre Dame is in the same Jon Scheyer position. For Danowski, star goalie Mike Duke men’s basketball head coach Adler is gone, Nakeie Montgomery is headed to the Premier Lacrosse League and a slew of other graduate students like Cameron “I’ve been reflecting the last 11 months Badour, Joe Robertson and Sean Lulley since I said yes, and found out I was logged their last minutes in a Duke shirt, going to be the next head coach, and I all because at the end of the day, RPI didn’t think my goal was from the beginning to matter and Duke didn’t get its opportunity at think about October of ‘22, to feel like the NCAA tournament. we’re in a position to pursue a national Rather unceremonious, indeed. championship,” Scheyer said. “And I think we’re on our way there.”

that finished 15th at the 2012 NCAA Championship and added Celine Boutier and Yi Xiao. In 2013, the program was the runner-up at NCAAs to USC, a jump of 13 spots and a sign of things to come—the Blue Devils flipped the script in 2014, winning their sixth national title by two shots over the Trojans.

Boutier was the ACC Rookie of the Year and an honorable mention All-American in 2013, though, so unless Smith can be an utter force as a freshman, it’s obviously not a one-toone comparison. But odds are that in the spring of 2023, Duke will take a step forward.

“Cleaning up one or two shots, that can go so far in this game,” Brooks said.

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