Elon and Duke Women’s lacrosse are both practicing hard for this Friday’s match at Elon. The tension between the two in-state rivals is high; especially considering Duke’s former associate head coach, Josh Hexter, left the team for a head coaching position at Elon in 2012. This will be one of the first games that both teams play this season, and they are both ready to put up a fight. The game will begin at 3 pm in Durham, North Carolina.
Duke’s head coach, Kerstin Kimel, says that even though the Blue Devils have a tough schedule this year, they are excited and ready to bring the competition against Elon on Friday. She thinks that the team is definitely up for the challenges this season will bring, and it will allow the players to grow and improve individually, as well as a team.
The game Friday against Elon will be the Blue Devil’s first of the season, however, they had a chance to warm up this past weekend with the “South of the Border” tournament which was co-hosted with UNC at home in Duke’s brand new Lacrosse facility. 2014 will be an important season for Duke, as they are looking to appear in the NCAA tournament for the 17th time in their program history. Duke was ranked seventh in the preseason-poll, and are hoping to crush their in-state opponent for their season home-opener.
Elon, however, has different plans for Friday’s matchup. They were ranked number five by the Atlantic Sun division’s preseason coach’s poll, and are eager to travel to Durham for a backyard brawl. Head coach Hexter is looking forward to traveling to his former facility and knows Elon will be ready to compete. Hexter is very excited about what the returning players will bring, along with the contributions the two freshmen who were selected to the Newcomer’s Watch list for the 2014 season. Molly Garrigan and Sydney Hesselbein will be making their first appearance in an Elon jersey, and everyone is eager to see what influence the duo will have on this season.
Friday will certainly be an interesting matchup, and fans can’t wait to see which end of the rivalry will come out on top.
