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Syracuse Vs. Duke Lacrosse - Big City Classic
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Alphabetical 2013 NCAA D1 Preview: Duke

We’re breaking down all the NCAA D1 teams one by one. Welcome to the Alphabetical 2013 NCAA D1 Previews! We are now at teams starting with the letter ‘D’,  and Duke, located in Durham, NC, is up for Preview… does Duke make it a banner year in 2013? Contender Alert!

Duke went 15-5 in 2012 and was quite close to making it back to another title game. Duke played TWELVE Top 20 games, and won seven of them. All five of their losses came to ranked teams, and their worst loss was a 15-9 battle with Denver.

Syracuse Vs. Duke Lacrosse - Big City Classic

In 2013, Duke once again plays a great schedule, but there are a couple of easier games this time around. Mercer, High Point, and Marquette are all easy wins for Duke, but I actually love these games, as they give new programs a chance to compete against the best of the best. Duke will play their ACC foes, as well as Jacksonville, Denver, Notre Dame, Penn, Loyola, Towson, Georgetown, Harvard, and Rutgers. Like I said, it’s a bit easier, but still a rough road to travel.

https://youtu.be/p6jI23Xs5iw

Thankfully for Duke, the road is a bit easier when you have experience, and Duke has plenty of that. Christian Walsh, Jordan Wolf, and Josh Dionne all return at attack for the Blue Devils, and all three are now juniors. Yikes. Offit is back as a Senior. In the midfield, Rotanz is gone, and so is Turri, but the talent and depth is still there in guys like Tripucka and Lawson.

CJ Costabile is a big loss at LSM, but Brendan Fowler is more than capable of winning draws, and Harvard’s Dan DiMaria is now a grad student at Duke. He will have an impact right away. If freshman like Matheis and Myles Jones can produce immediately, Duke could be unstoppable on offense, and just fine throughout their midfield overall.

Defensively, Duke did lose a couple of guys… however, the return of Casey Carroll means the team has experience in spades. Add in guys like Chris Hipps, Henry Lobb and Bill Conners and those fears get erased pretty quickly. Both Dan Wigrizer and Kyle Turri return in net, and they are joined by Luke Aaron and Ben Krebs. Last year Duke used three keepers quite a bit, most often going with Wigrizer, but 2013 could be the year where one guy truly emerges.

If Duke is lucky enough to find a keeper they feel they can rely on (they no longer have John Galloway as an assistant coach in that department, he is at Providence now), they could be a very tough team to beat in 2013. There is plenty of talent, lots of experience and a hunger to win. 2013 is already looking pretty black and blue.

Click HERE to see Alphabetical 2013 NCAA D1 Preview posts for Air Force, Albany, Army, Bellarmine, Binghamton, Brown, Bryant, Bucknell, Canisius, Colgate, Cornell, Dartmouth, Denver, Detroit, and Drexel!

Also check out Crosse Clicks: College Edition for links, videos, photos and more.