Duke rode a record-setting performance by senior attackman Justin Guterding to beat Johns Hopkins 14-9 Sunday in Annapolis, Md., to advance to the men’s lacrosse Final Four for the 11th time in school history and ninth time in 12 seasons under coach John Danowski.
Guterding scored three goals to help the Blue Devils earn their first trip to the national semifinals since 2014.
His third goal of the day was the 207th of his career, surpassing the old NCAA record of 206 set by former Blue Devil Zack Greer. Guterding also set a single-season school record with his 104th point of 2018, one more than Jordan Wolf recorded four years ago. The Garden City, N.Y., native has 61 goals and 43 goals and counting this season.
While Guterding was rewriting the record books, it was teammate Joey Manown that got Duke (15-3) off to a flying start by scoring two early goals to stake his team to a 4-1 lead after one period. The Blue Devils maintained the advantage for the remainder of the game, although Hopkins did manage to make things interesting by pulling to within 9-8 with 7:11 remaining.
Duke answered the challenge with consecutive goals by freshman Nakeie Montgomery, then put the game away when Greg Pelton gained possession of the ball off the faceoff, went straight to the net and scored his first goal of the season.
Goalie Danny Fowler made the lead hold up by making 11 saves as the fourth-seeded Blue Devils improved to 11-0 this season when allowing its opponents fewer than 10 goals.
With the win, Duke will take on former ACC rival and top-seeded Maryland in the national semifinals next Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. Second-seeded Albany and third-seeded Yale will play in the other semifinal.
The Blue Devils and Terrapins have met five previous times in NCAA tournament play, with Maryland holding a 3-2 advantage.
