Friday would have been the finals of the 2020 NCAA Tournament for the 2019-20 Duke women's lacrosse team. Let's take a look back at Duke's first NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals appearance, where the Blue Devils topped James Madison to earn the program's first Final Four berth.
Duke women's lacrosse is one of the most storied programs in the sports history. The 1999 Blue Devil team, despite just being in its fourth season of play and reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time the year before, made history as the first Duke team to reach the Final Four.
The 1999 season saw multiple pieces come together to bring success. Head coach Kerstin Kimel had a strong veteran core supplemented with a young and hungry freshman class. The veterans felt the growth as a program and were gaining confidence after reaching the tournament for the first time the year before.
Reflecting on the season, Kimel remembers how her senior class – Karen Sutton, Kendra Basner, Meghan McLaughlin, Sandy Johnston and Erin Miller – were set on one goal for the year, to get to the Final Four.
Kimel's squad reached the tournament for a second consecutive year after a third-place finish in the ACC. The Blue Devils were slated to face James Madison in the quarterfinals.
"Going into that James Madison game I really felt like we had no expectations other than we were all starting to realize we were no longer a 'new program' or an 'emerging program,'" Kate Soulier said in reflection. "We were now Duke Lacrosse, and from this point forward that was going to mean something."
That contest against James Madison started if as it was another game during the season, the Blue Devils fell behind in the first half. That specific season, the team had become used to that storyline coming through, but Duke found ways to pull out the win in the second half.
Duke entered the half behind and many counted them out of the game. Sutton, the captain of the 1999 side, was not to be counted out.
Sutton graduated in 1998, the year before, but was asked by Kimel if she would want to stay for her final year of eligibility and captain the 1999 squad. Sutton couldn't turn the offer down and decided to stay in Durham to reach her goal – to put Duke lacrosse on the map and get to the Final Four.
At halftime, Sutton vividly remembers looking into the stands and seeing parents and fans counting the Blue Devils out, discussing how it was a great season and the team did well this year. But Sutton and Kimel saw it differently. They never counted themselves out of the game and always felt like they were in a position to win.
Sutton went on to call out each of her teammates to step up to the challenge before them. She was not ready to play her last game just yet, and she definitely did not want to lose her last game on Koskinen Field.
"I told everybody to go out there and do your job, and if you don't we have a whole team of people on the sidelines that will step up and fight for that," Sutton said. "We are coming out of this with a win and we are going to the Final Four because I'm not ending on this note."
Even 21 years later, Kimel remembers making a defensive adjustment with senior McLaughlin and remembers it working to the Blue Devils benefit. In the second half.
"I knew in my hard of hearts that we were going to win," Sutton continued. "I knew we had the talent to win. We just crushed it after that."
The Blue Devils clawed their way back into it and took it to the end. Of the defensive adjustments, Soulier remembers one that stuck out. Prior to the quarterfinal matchup, one of the assistant coaches had worked with the team in practice on a pressure defense when the opposition was trying to clear the ball. In Souliers memory, it never worked in practice. But it worked against James Madison.
"With a few minutes left in the game, a shot of ours was saved by the James Madison goalie and she was getting ready to clear the ball," Soulier remembered. "Immediately, we went into the pressure defense and miraculously, the goalie cleared the ball directly to me."
Once with the ball, Soulier surveyed the field and found one of her favorite teammates to connect with, First Team All-America selection Tricia Martin. Martin made no mistake and put the ball in the cage.
"As great as that moment was, the best moment was when we both ran behind the cage, hugged, pulled away, looked at each other in disbelief and then grabbed each other again," Soulier continued.
"You have to understand, for the first three years of our program Duke Lacrosse was not a thing. It wasn't on the map – and then in a split second we were."
The celebration, and history, commenced for the Blue Devils.
"I remember thinking after the game, 'how did we just do this,'" then-freshman Kate Kaiser said. "Then the pure joy following the game of "wow, we did it" and being physically exhausted… It was all so exciting."
"Rarely in life do you get to be a part of seeing something grow and emerge into something great," Soulier said. "It has been more than 20 years since that game, but the pride I have felt from that year will last forever. Duke became a great program that year and I am honored to have played a small role."
Since that game 21 years ago to this date, Duke has reached six additional Final Fours and continues to be 'on the map.'
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May 09, 2020 at 01:24AM
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Flashback: Duke Reaches First Final Four - Duke University - GoDuke.com
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