Freshman attackman Kaitlyn DeHaven manuevers toward the net in the offensive zone in the Dukes’ victory over Robert Morris.
Saúl Berríos-Thomas | Layout Editor
The Duquesne women’s lacrosse game opened Atlantic 10 conference play with a victory on Rooney Field. The Dukes (11-1, 2-0) beat George Washington (5-6, 1-1) 19-12 in a game that wasn’t even close. On Sunday the Dukes picked up their first A-10 road win as they beat George Mason 21-13.
The win is the Dukes’ 10th straight. The Red & Blue have not lost since Feb. 25 in an early season non-conference matchup against Penn State in State College, Pa. They’ve outscored their opponents 164-80 during the streak.
The team was excited to start off conference play with a win on the Bluff.
“The home-opening game here on our field is a big win,” junior midfielder Amanda Kidder said.
For freshman midfielder Kaelin Shaw, the victory “sets the tone for the rest of the season.”
The Dukes opened the scoring on a goal from senior forward Haley Marafioti in the first minute of the game. Junior midfielder Clare Hurley followed Marafioti’s goal with one of her own just under six minutes later, when she drove the net and converted a shot to the left of the goalie. Senior midfielder Caitlin Prince was the third Dukes player to score. Junior midfielder Amanda Kidder rounded it out with a shot low to the goal when the George Washington goalie wasn’t expecting it. Each of the Dukes’ offensive stars scored to give the Dukes a 4-2 lead midway through the first half. The Dukes kept the lead for the remainder of the half, finishing the half with a 7-5 advantage.
In the second half, the Dukes pulled away. They came out scoring five unanswered goals to take the lead to 12-5 in the first 10 minutes. The Dukes controlled the reminder of the game, never relinquishing the advantage.
Head coach Mike Scerbo was glad to see his team finish the game well.
“The second half was exactly what we wanted it to be. It was a very good performance,” he said. “We cleaned up a lot of the mistakes that we made in the first half and really established ourselves to be the team that we know we are capable of being.”
Amanda Kidder had a huge game for the Dukes. She scored a season-high seven goals on eight shots. She was two-for-two on free-position attempts and also had three draw controls.
“I had no idea [this was coming]. Everyone was just drawing pressure, swinging the ball, moving fast and they had some great feeds to me,” Kidder said.
Lowry was impressed by her teammate’s output.
“Her shot is so good. She always makes the best cuts and dodges, so she can always get to the cage,” she said.
Scerbo expects Kidder to be capable of performing at this level.
“She is the kind of kid that we expect to have big days. I don’t expect this to be the only time she scores seven goals in a game. She is a very talented kid and she had a very good day across the board not just in scoring, but in everything she did,” he said
Lowry came up big with two goals and three assists. Shaw had a productive all-around day with a goal, two ground balls, a draw control and two caused turnovers. Hurley and Prince each added three goals.
Lowry was glad to lead the club in assists, but gave the credit to her teammates.
“It feels really good,” she said. “My teammates make really good cuts and it allows me to feed them the ball.”
They will head to Philadelphia for their game against La Salle Friday at 7 p.m.
