Caroline Cryer is playing the best lacrosse of her life as she hits the field with her Duke University teammates today in Boston for the NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse semifinals against defending national champion Northwestern.
Cryer, a former Cherry Creek High School standout who has 29 goals this season, scored a career-high four goals and produced a career-high six points in the Blue Devils’ 16-6 second-round victory over James Madison.
“The last game sends me into this semifinal with a lot of confidence,” said Cryer, a 5-foot-9 sophomore attacker. “Everything seems to be flowing and going right for me.”
Cryer said the same of her teammates, who seek Duke’s first NCAA championship.
“We feel like it’s our turn, our year, to win the national championship,” she said.
“We’re excited to leave it all out there on the field.”
Members of the Duke team will reportedly wear sweatbands bearing the word “innocent” as a show of support for the three members of the Duke men’s lacrosse team who have been indicted on charges of rape and kidnapping.
Duke sports information assistant Ben Blevins told The Denver Post, “We aren’t answering any questions about sweatbands.”
When Cryer was asked about wanting to win the championship, in part, for the men whose season was disbanded, she said, “I’m not supposed to comment.”
The other semifinal at Boston University features Dartmouth, with Coloradans Devon Wills, Annie Leibovitz and Margo Duke, against Notre Dame, including former Cherry Creek High player Meghan Murphy.
Wills, a senior goalkeeper from Colorado Academy, leads the nation with a 6.49 goals-against average. Leibovitz, a senior midfielder from Kent Denver, has scored 13 goals and 11 assists, including a hat trick in a first-round victory over Boston University. Duke, a junior attacker from Kent Denver, has scored six goals this season.
Murphy has 14 goals and nine assists for the Fighting Irish after missing the 2005 season because of knee surgery.
The men’s semifinals are set for Philadelphia on Saturday and feature No. 1 Virginia against No. 5 Syracuse and second-ranked Maryland, which eliminated Denver in the first round, against unseeded Massachusetts.
Dustin Palmer, a sophomore defender from Cherry Creek, appeared in 11 games this season for Syracuse after missing all but three games in 2005 because of an injury.
