May 28, 2005

Duke advanced to the men's lacrosse national title game for the first time by beating Maryland 18-9 Saturday behind four goals from Zack Greer.

Matt Zash had three goals for second-seeded Duke (17-2) and Dan Flannery had three. With its 17th win, Duke set a new NCAA record.

Duke will play Johns Hopkins in Monday's final. John Hopkins defeated Virginia 9-8 in overtime. Earlier this season, Duke fell in overtime at Johns Hopkins.

Greer, a 19-year-old freshman, now has 57 goals this season, breaking the previous school record of 53 set in 1997 by John Fay. He also set a new ACC mark, passing Doug Knight's 56-goal season in 1996.

After the teams traded a goal apiece in the first two minutes of the game, Duke took control, scoring eight straight goals to take a 9-1 lead.

Zash had all three of his goals in the first half and Flannery added two of his own, as Duke scored on 10 of its 19 first-half shots. Maryland's Andrew Schwartzman scored two goals in the last two minutes of the half before Zash scored with 29 seconds left to give the Blue Devils a 10-3 halftime lead.

Walters scored all three of his goals in the third quarter, each time cradling the ball behind the goal before scoring unassisted, as Maryland got within six.

The Terps, however, scored just two goals in the fourth quarter, and Duke held on for the win.

Nick O'Hara and Kyle Dowd had two goals each for Duke and Matt Danowski, Ryan Marshall, Bret Thompson and Bo Carrington had each added one. Xander Ritz and Thomas Alford each scored one goal for Maryland, which had defeated Duke, 10-8, to win the ACC championship May 1.

The Blue Devils were last in the final four in 1997, losing to Princeton 10-9 in the semifinals.

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