Originally Posted by
burnspbesq
In fairness, it should be noted that Duke women’s athletics is in decline pretty much across the board.
Women’s lacrosse has gone from being a consistent Final Four threat to an entertaining bubble team, and lost its best player to an intra-ACC transfer.
No Duke women’s soccer player has stepped onto a field at any level wearing a USA jersey since Mollie Pathman in 2012. Kudos to Coach Church and his staff for continuing to win without elite talent, but ...
Duke hasn’t had world-class track and field athletes or fencers since Shannon Rowbury and Ibby Muhammad.
Volleyball and field hockey are hit or miss. Tennis is competitive but not a threat to win titles. Crew is largely irrelevant on the ACC and NCAA levels.
Softball and swimming appear to be on upticks, but have some way yet to go.
Only golf is at a consistently high level.
Whoever and whenever, the next AD has a tough row to hoe.
Vive le golf des femmes!! Seven NCAA championships in 21 years since 1999 and four individual championships. From GoDuke.com:
In 2001, Candy Hannemann won Duke's first NCAA Individual title and then Virada Nirapathpongporn won the title in 2002 for back-to-back. Anna Grzebien won the individual crown in 2005 and then Virginia Elena Carta turned in a record breaking performance in 2016 for another individual title.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013