Duke beats Irish, earns first title

BALTIMORE - Every kid with a lacrosse stick envisions scoring the goal that wins the national championship.

C.J. Costabile thought about it when he was growing up, never believing the opportunity would come his way.

And then it did.

Costabile scored with five seconds gone in sudden-death overtime Monday, giving Duke its first NCAA men's Division I lacrosse title with a 6-5 win over unseeded Notre Dame.

Asked if he once dreamed of pulling off such a feat, Costabile said, "Everyone kind of thinks about that. It's kind of cool. It's fairy-tale stuff. You don't think it's going to happen."

And then, after a slight pause, he added, "I guess it kind of happened."

Costabile won the face-off from Trever Sipperly and sprinted downfield before beating standout goaltender Scott Rodgers with a shot from directly in front of the net.

"I took my lane, it was open," Costabile said. "Whether I decided to shoot high or low, I couldn't tell you. I just kind of let it rip and saw the back of the net move."

The Blue Devils (16-4) rushed onto the field and created a massive pile of players, sticks and helmets while celebrating the fastest goal to start an overtime in NCAA championship history.

"For C.J. to make a play like he did in overtime certainly made it a lot easier for the rest of us," Duke coach John Danowski said.

The Irish ended the season with a 10-7 record.

Women. Their eyes were red, and it took every bit of effort for the Northwestern players to keep the tears from flowing down their flushed cheeks Sunday.

None had ever experienced losing the NCAA women's lacrosse national championship game, and the way it happened made it far more difficult to swallow.

Northwestern's dynasty ended Sunday with a 13-11 loss to Maryland, which rallied from a six-goal deficit to dethrone the five-time champions in Towson, Md.

The Terrapins were able to come back because they tightened up their defense in front of the goal to prevent Northwestern's repeated rushes to the net. Maryland also started winning more draws, and goaltender Brittany Dipper, a Kingsway graduate, began to assert herself in the net.

Dipper, who didn't stop a shot until the Wildcats scored their eighth goal, finished with seven saves.