Jones Scores Career-High Five as No. 3 Duke Grounds Boston College
from press release
NEWTON, Mass. - Duke junior Amanda Jones netted
a career-high five goals and Duke survived a late-game scare from
Boston College to edge the Eagles 14-11 in ACC action Saturday
afternoon at Newton Campus Lacrosse Field. The Blue Devils improve
to 10-2 on the year and 3-1 in conference games, while the Eagles
fall to 8-5 overall and 1-4 in the ACC.
"This is our third weekend on the road in a row and I'm pleased
that we were able to come out of here with a win against a very
good Boston College team," head coach Kerstin Kimel said. "In every
game, there are good things you learn about your team and also
things you learn you can do better, but we took a lot of good
things out of the game today."
Jones tied her previous career high of three goals by the end of
the first half and added two more scores in the second frame to
lead all players on the day. The Maple Glen, Pa., native has
registered back-to-back hat tricks for the first time in her career
as eight of her 14 goals this season have come in the past two
games.
"In every game, we've had somebody different step up and today was
Amanda's day to do that," added Kimel. "Without her we wouldn't
have won this game. I think that is a great thing for our team that
we have a lot of people who are threats and [the opposing team] has
to worry about a lot of different people."
In addition, Kat Thomas added three goals for her seventh hat trick
of the season, while Emma Hamm and Sarah Bullard notched two goals
apiece. Virginia Crotty led Duke with two assists, her fourth
multi-assist game in 2011.
To start the game, Duke found itself in an early 2-0 hole after
Boston College capitalized on a couple Devil turnovers to start the
opening period. However, the Blue Devils would respond as Thomas
put Duke on the board at 24:48 with a quick goal in transition.
Just over a minute later, Jones registered her first goal of the
game to pull the Blue Devils even with the Eagles at 2-2. Jones
gave Duke the lead 45 seconds later off a pass from Crotty, but
Boston College tied things up at three with 19:04 to go in the
half.
Bullard, who saw her first action after missing the past
seven games due to injury, gave Duke the lead for good at the
halfway point of the first stanza. Duke pushed its advantage to two
goals on a Thomas score, but the Eagles pulled within one a minute
later. Yet Duke was able to close out the period on a 3-0 run to
take an 8-4 lead into the intermission. Bullard registered her
second goal of the game to start the run and Jones netted a fast
break goal at 7:51 before Thomas capped off the run at 2:36 off an
assist from Hamm.
Duke began the second half where it left off as Kim Wenger won the
draw and found Jones open for Duke's ninth goal of the day just
nine seconds into the second half. But Boston College clawed back
into the contest, scoring the game's next three goals to pull
within two with 27:18 left to play.
The Blue Devils appeared to have weathered the storm, extending
their lead to 12-7 at the 19:47 mark with two goals from Hamm and a
tally from Jones, but the Eagles made another run at Duke, cutting
the Devil lead to 12-11 with 3:12 to play.
After a Devil timeout, Hamm was able to win the ensuing draw, which
set up a Christie Kaestner goal, her 25th of the season, with just
over two minutes remaining. The Eagles gained possession on the
next draw, but Wenger caused an Eagle turnover behind the Duke cage
to secure the victory for the Blue Devils. Caroline Spearman scored
her first goal of the season with just seconds on the clock to
bring the final score to 14-11 in Duke's favor.
Overall, the two teams were even at 13 draw controls each. Duke
held the advantage in shots, 27-22, and committed a season-low
seven turnovers in the contest.
The Blue Devils next travel to Providence, R.I., tomorrow Sunday,
April 10 to take on Brown at 1 p.m.
