A year later, Duke lacrosse rallies to NCAA Final Four

	Wearing wristbands in honor of their former teammates, the Duke lacrosse team will be back in the Final Four on Saturday. AP

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- As North Carolina continued to score goal after goal, the foxhole only grew deeper for the embattled band of Duke lacrosse players on Sunday evening.

Down by as many as five goals in the first half, the Blue Devils were left with two options: plant their heads in the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium FieldTurf or start digging their way out by winning groundballs and firing shots at the North Carolina net. They chose the latter and came charging back. Trailing 8-5 at the half, the team retreated to the locker room with supreme confidence despite still facing an uphill struggle. After overcoming the firestorm last year after allegations of sexual assault were brought against three former players, which threatened the future of the program, the Blue Devils know no on-field adversity is insurmountable.

"We weren't going crazy in there at halftime because we were down. We weren't kicking and screaming about what are we going to?" says Duke senior Matt Danowski, who scored four goals and dished out six assists. "We're not afraid of coming back. There was a calm, poised air in the locker room."

Danowski, the nation's leader with 91 points, and his teammates knew what they had to do and they came out and did it. By the time the final horn sounded, the Blue Devils fought their way out of the depths of a possible quarterfinal dismissal with a 14-3 second-half run. Powered by skill and poise, Duke rallied for a 19-11 victory. The Blue Devils head to Baltimore for next weekend's Final Four match against Cornell, which beat them in March.

"We never saw this whole season as a vindication for what happened last year. This is a game the kids play after school," said Danowski's father, John, the team's head coach, who gained his position after former Duke coach Mike Pressler was forced out last spring. "The game does not tell anybody that they are good or bad people."

What this season's games have shown to a rapidly-growing audience is what the Duke program can do when its own administrators don't cancel their season. Riding a 10-game winning streak entering Sunday, the ever-durable boys from Durham, N.C. have now won 16 games this year and trail only the 2005 team's 17 wins for most victories in school history.

"The last time we were in the Final Four in Philadelphia in 2005 seems like five years ago," said Matt Danowski, who was named to the all-tournament team as a sophomore in the run that ended with a 9-8 loss to Johns Hopkins in the championship game. "It's a totally different feeling, but all along, once we got on the field it was only about lacrosse."

That was evident as Danowski played the John Stockton to teammate Zack Greer's Karl Malone (seven goals, three assists). Connecting with each other five times for Greer's goals and Danowski's assists, the tandem combined for 20 points.

"It's absurd," said North Carolina's Fletcher Gregory, when asked to put into words what he saw on the field from the nation's most feared attack men.

What was even more revealing was the Tar Heel's word on rooting for Duke despite losing to the Blue Devils for the third time this season: "The whole lacrosse community took a blow when that happened," said Gregory. "I don't like Duke, but I sided with them and I am glad the facts of the case came out in the end."

Already a tight knit community prior to last year's scandal, the lacrosse world became even smaller for Duke in the following months. The whole sport and its seemingly lax social rules culture was on trial alongside the three Duke players. Only 56 NCAA Division I schools participate in the sport, but Duke became the spoiled problem child. That tide of national attention has now changed. Once dogged by lawsuits and charges of racism and outlaw behavior, the No. 1 seed was welcomed by the cheers typically reserved for underdogs.

"Shirts, hats, you name it with Duke lacrosse on it these days, they're selling out," says John Danowski, who was the coach at Hofstra last year. "We're hotter than basketball in the campus bookstore. That's the accountant telling us that, too."

The Blue Devils are a hit with the box office as well. Already used to the increased attention by now, the announced attendance at the United States Naval Academy's field was 10,438 for Sunday's game, the third largest crowd in NCAA quarterfinal history. This weekend, the stakes will rise even higher. Taking the national stage as the sport of lacrosse does each year for its championships during the Memorial Day weekend, members of the lacrosse community are already talking sellout in terms of fan turnout at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, which holds 70,107.

Still rising from the ashes of last year's controversy, Duke has revitalized the lacrosse world with its scorching offense. Fourteen months after the allegations against three of its players were made, Duke will have its day, not in court, but on the field Saturday.

"To play to crowds like this is not what I ever imagined this time last year," says John Danowski. "We're just happy to play on the lacrosse field another day."