DURHAM, N.C. — Zack Greer already had set a national record for goals by a freshman and was leading the Duke lacrosse team again when the infamous rape scandal derailed last season.
Yet amid all the chaos Greer still clung to the charge he felt while running onto the field in front of thousands of fans at the 2005 Final Four.
That memory has stayed with him ever since, including through his decision to remain at Duke despite the program's uncertain future instead of becoming a sought-after transfer. Now the junior who provides the goal-scoring punch to the Blue Devils' attack will finally get the chance to experience that moment again.
Having it happen here makes it even more special.
"It's crazy," Greer said Wednesday. "Sometimes it's even hard to think about because so much has happened in the past year and a half. It's unbelievable the way everyone's stuck together and nobody transferred.
"We've gone through so much together and that's probably helped us out in the long run — made us tighter with more team chemistry. Everyone's got that bond."
Heading into Saturday's national semifinal game against Cornell, Greer leads the country with 63 goals for the top-seeded Blue Devils (16-2). That total broke his own school and Atlantic Coast Conference season record of 57 goals set as a freshman in '05.
He's currently tied for fourth on the NCAA's single-season list, and a strong two-game showing in Baltimore could leave him second only to the 82 goals scored by Yale's Jon Reese in 1990.
That production already has him fourth on Duke's career lists with 137 goals and third among all active players nationally.
He's done all that despite playing just eight games as a sophomore after the university canceled the remainder of the season due to the since-disproven rape allegations against three former teammates.
"I love to score goals," Greer said. "I've been an attack man and an offensive player my whole life. Coming in here (as a freshman) with a bunch of great players got me off on the right foot. I didn't really know what my role was going to be, but eventually I grew into it."
Greer's scoring knack made him the perfect complement to All-American attacker and co-captain Matt Danowski, who leads the nation with 91 points and 49 assists. That combination was on display in the Blue Devils' 19-11 win against North Carolina last weekend; the two each tallied 10 points, with Greer finishing with seven goals.
"To me, it's easy," Danowski said. "I've just got to throw it to Zack around the cage. And when he's around the cage, he's going to find a way to put it in the back of the goal."
Still, Greer is hoping to do more of that this weekend than he did in his previous trip to the Final Four. He scored four goals in Duke's semifinal win against Maryland in '05, but managed only one assist in a 9-8 loss to Johns Hopkins in the title game.
He hoped to get back there with the Blue Devils, even as the university suspended the team from play and accepted the resignation of longtime coach Mike Pressler last spring amid the rape allegations. He talked with Syracuse and Cornell about transferring if Duke didn't reinstate its program.
Once it did, Greer was determined to stay and relive that Final Four memory again.
"When I found out there was going to be a program here, those memories definitely came back," he said. "You're like, 'We can do it again."'