– Junior Katie Cronin had her second-consecutive five-point performance to lead the 18th-ranked Duke women's lacrosse team over East Carolina, 16-6, Tuesday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium. "Spring break games are always interesting," head coach Kerstin Kimel said. "Our kids did a good job of kind of resetting at halftime. We weren't playing our smoothest or best lacrosse for about half of the game and I thought the second half was a big improvement. After gathering ACC Offensive Player of the Week honors for her five-goal performance versus No. 12 Virginia, the Darien, Conn., native led Duke (6-3, 1-1 ACC) in points for the third consecutive game, this time on four goals and an assist. It was a slow start for both teams, going scoreless until Anna Callahan found Veronica Hineman at 22:15. Duke would go on to outscore East Carolina (5-3, 0-0 AAC) 7-1 in the opening 15 minutes of play, led by Cronin with two. The Pirates responded with a three-goal run of their own, bringing it to 7-4 before Duke added another just before the break. The two teams traded scores to open the second period. Duke answered with its longest stretch of the night, scoring seven in-a-row while holding its opponent scoreless for 23 minutes. ECU scored the final goal of the game with one second remaining. Catriona Barry had three goals while Catherine Cordrey and Caroline DeBellis recorded two assists each to help Duke's offense. On the defensive end, 11 different Blue Devils caused at least one turnover and Katie Cosgrove led the team with two. Chase Henriquez turned in another solid performance in the cage, making eight saves and gathering six ground balls. "Our defense was really good today," Kimel added. "I thought and we were like 80% efficient. Chase had another really good day in the goal cage and I'm happy that we were able to come away with a good win." Duke returns to action Saturday versus the ninth-ranked Penn Quakers at Koskinen Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra with opening draw slated for noon.