Yale holds off Duke to win first NCAA lacrosse title

Eddie Timanus | USA TODAY

FOXBOROUGH, Mass – Sophomore Matt Gaudet scored a game-high four goals to lead third-seeded Yale to a 13-11 win against No. 4 Duke, giving the Bulldogs their first NCAA championship in men’s lacrosse in program history before a Gillette Stadium crowd of 29,455.

Gaudet, who also had six goals in Yale’s semifinal win against Albany, was named the tournament’s most outstanding player. Jack Tigh scored three times in the first half for the Bulldogs (17-3). Tewaaraton Award finalist Ben Reeves finished with a goal and three assists, and freshman goalie Jack Starr made nine stops, including a big save in the game’s final 30 seconds that helped Yale run out the clock. Justin Guterding had two goals and an assist for Duke (16-4), but the Blue Devils’ offense struggled to generate open shots most of the afternoon.

In what had become a recurring theme in this NCAA tournament, the winning team got out of the gate quickly and never trailed. Yale scored three times in the first 5:47 of the game, the first two by Tigh and the third by Gaudet, putting Duke in an early hole.

“I was a little bit concerned,” said Duke coach John Danowski, “but I knew there was a lot of lacrosse left. … But I thought that Yale shot the ball particularly well. That just may have been the difference as I thought they picked some corners and just had some great individual efforts on their part.”

Bulldogs coach Andy Shay wasn’t taking the early lead for granted. “I wasn’t comfortable when we jumped out on Albany,” he said. “Even when it got to 4-1, I felt like it was going to be a grind game.”

The Blue Devils did indeed continue the fight, trimming the deficit to a goal on two occasions in the first half. But Yale maintained a 6-4 lead at intermission. Reeves keyed another three-goal run by the Bulldogs to open the second half, scoring the first and setting up the next two. Duke could get no closer than two the rest of the way.

“I just thought that our midfielders and both Ben and Jackson Morrill were able to draw a lot of attention,” said Gaudet of his 10-goal weekend. “They just got a lot of attention, and I was able to get my layups. I owe it all to my teammates.”

Shay was running out of superlatives for Reeves, his senior captain and All-American following the game. “Everybody here sees a big, fast and talented lacrosse player. That’s about five percent of Ben Reeves. His major – they call it MCBD because nobody wants to say ‘molecular cellular development biology’ over and over again – What’s his GPA? 3.89? Slacker, right? I mean, it’s so absurd that he’s got that GPA with that major that people just go right to jokes.”

Shay also related how Reeves passed up a chance to try out for the U.S. national team in the fall. “I said, ‘You need to go. This is Team USA.’ He said, ‘Coach, I’m the captain of this team. I’m staying.’”

The ending was not as happy for Guterding, who concluded his Duke career with 351 points. He’ll be at the Tewaaraton ceremony along with Reeves when the award is presented later this week. “It is just tough to play from behind,” he said. “But we gave it all we could today. I’m just proud of every guy on this team.”

Yale’s title was the first for an Ivy League member since Princeton’s 2001 crown. It also concluded a good weekend for New England schools in Foxborough as Wesleyan (Conn.) and Merrimack (Mass.) claimed the Division III and Division II championships, respectively.