May 18, 2002

The 20th-ranked Duke women's varsity eight earned a spot in the grand final at the Lexus Central Sprint with a third place finish in the semifinals of the event. The Blue Devils advanced to the semifinal race with a third place finish in the opening heat, posting a time of 6:51.8, finishing behind Michigan (6:44.0) and Iowa (6:48.8).

In the semifinal race, Duke advanced to the grand final with a third place finish in a time of 6:38.3, crossing the finish line less than a second before Iowa (6:38.9). The top three finishers in each of the semifinal races advanced to the grand final.

Sunday's Grand Final will be a showdown of five ranked teams as #3 Ohio State, #5 Michigan, #10 Michigan State, #15 Notre Dame and #20 Duke are all scheduled to compete in the final race of the weekend.

The Duke varsity eight team is made up of Kareen Murray (C), Amelia Booth, Katie Lakin, Joanna Hingle, Melissa Buckmiller, Kim Meyer, Natalie Zervas, Maren Betts-Sonstegard and Caroline Diemar.

Duke's novice eight crew placed fourth in its opening heat with a time of 7:21.5, while the varsity four also took fourth in its heat with a time of 7:58.6. The varsity four went on to finish fourth in the Repechage with a time of 7:57.5.