SU, Duke Meet in NCAA Title Game

2013 NCAA Final - #2 Syracuse (16-3) vs. #4 Duke (15-5)
Details	Monday, May 27 \| Philadelphia, Pa. \| 1 p.m. Tournament Bracket \| Lincoln Financial Field \| Tickets \| Weather
Game Coverage	TV: ESPN \| Radio: ESPN Radio 97.7 (Syracuse) WatchESPN.com: Watch Orange All Access: Listen \| Live Stats Twitter: @Cuse, @sumenslax
Syracuse Links	News \| Roster \| Schedule \| Stats \| Notes \| Guide
Duke Links	News \| Roster \| Schedule \| Stats \| Notes \| Guide

PHILADELPHIA -- The top-seeded Orange (16-3) looks to win its third national championship in the last six years on Monday, May 27 when it faces No. 7 seed Duke (15-5) in the NCAA title game at 1 p.m. at Lincoln Financial Field. The game is a matchup of two future ACC rivals as Syracuse joins the Blue Devils in the conference on July 1, 2013.

The Orange advanced to the title game for the 17th time in school history with a 9-8 come-from-behind victory versus fourth-seeded Denver in the semifinals. Duke reached its first championship game since 2010 by defeating Cornell in the semis, 16-14.

DESKO CAN TIE RECORD FOR MOST NCAA TITLES
Orange head coach John Desko has five NCAA national championships to his credit, winning the gold trophy in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008 and 2009. With a victory against the Blue Devils, Desko can match the NCAA Division I record of six NCAA titles shared by his coach and mentor Roy Simmons Jr. and Denver head coach Bill Tierney.

SU CAN SET SEASON WINS RECORD
With one more victory, the 2013 Orange will set a new single-season record for wins (17). Syracuse is currently 16-3 heading into championship Monday versus Duke. In addition to this season, the Orange won 16 games three times previously, including the 2008 and 2009 national championship seasons. SU also recorded 16 wins in 1922.

SCOUTING DUKE
The Duke Blue Devils advanced to its fourth national championship game in school history following a thrilling 16-14 win against Cornell in the NCAA semifinals. After trailing for most of the first half, the Blue Devils used a 7-0 run to jump ahead of the Big Red in the third quarter. The Duke defense, led by goalie Kyle Turri, fought off the Big Red's attempts to regain the lead and secured a trip to the title game. Turri made a career-high 16 saves in the victory.

This is the third time that head coach John Danowski has led his team to the NCCA title game. The first was in 2007. The second was in 2010 when the Blue Devils captured their first national title by defeating Notre Dame in overtime, 6-5.

Junior attackman Jordan Wolf leads the Duke offense. Wolf notched his seventh five-point game and 10th hat trick of the season against Cornell, scoring four goals and recording one assist. He leads the Blue Devils with 79 points this season on 53 goals and 26 assists. Case Matheis, who had four points against Cornell in the semifinals, has 52 points (28 goals, 24 assists) this season.

With his 16 faceoff victories against the Big Red, Brendon Fowler set the NCAA single-season faceoff wins record with 319. He surpassed the record of 315 set by Bryant's Kevin Massa against the Orange in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Fowler has a faceoff winning percentage of .641 (319-498).

With his career-high 16 saves against Cornell, Turri is 12-1 this season with a goals-against average of 9.62 and a save percentage of .496. Luke Duprey has a team-high 36 caused turnovers for the Duke defense.

MARASCO MOVES ONTO CAREER ASSISTS LIST
Orange senior midfielder JoJo Marasco's 86 career assists has him tied with Liam Banks (1999-01, 03) for ninth on the SU career assists list. Marasco's three assists against Denver in the NCAA semifinal game moved him past Paul Gait (1987-90) and Tom Nelson (1984-87) who each had 85 helpers.

Marasco passed out his 35th assist of the season in SU's 13-9 win over Villanova in the BIG EAST Tournament to set the school-single season record for assists by a midfi elder. Marasco eclipsed the previous record of 34 held by Gait. Marasco currently has 41 assists on the year.

THE SERIES
Syracuse has won six of the nine all-time meetings with the Blue Devils, including five of the last seven. In NCAA playoff pairings, Syracuse is 3-1 against the Blue Devils. Duke defeated Syracuse 12-9 at Koskinen Stadium in the first round of the 2012 NCAA Championship, the most recent meeting between the two programs.

Syracuse University Athletics

Related Videos