Duke LAX Opener Saturday at Noon

[MCFinARL]

Duke lacrosse, ranked between 2nd and 4th in various pre-season rankings, opens its season this Saturday at noon against Rutgers. (Yes, it's a regular season game on Feb. 11--needless to say it is in Durham, nobody wants to play in NJ on Feb. 11.)

If you are going to go to the Maryland game, why not make a day of it?

[burnspbesq]

Decent opening-day performance by the Blue Devils. It was 5-4 midway through the second quarter, but Duke closed out the half with four unanswered goals and was never threatened after halftime.

Four goals for Rob Rotanz, three for Dave Lawson, two each for Christian Walsh and Jake Tripucka.

Positives: Manley looked good in his first game back after missing the entire 2011 season. Wiggy looked sharp. Duke won 16 of 28 faceoffs. Strong showings by freshmen Kyle Keenan on the first midfield unit and Will Haus at SSDM.

Negatives: Jordan Wolf didn't look comfortable playing in the behind-the-net attack role that was filled by Josh Howell last year. Some really silly penalties.

We'll know more about this team after next week's trip to Notre Dame.