Duke Lacrosse Team Loses In National Championship Game

While the Duke lacrosse team lost the national championship yesterday to Johns Hopkins 12-11 a year removed from a cancelled season over the unfounded allegations of rape against three Duke players, one of the three players accused, Reade Seligmann, has decided to go to Brown University to continue his playing career:

Along with Seligmann, lacrosse players Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans were indicted last year on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offense, after a woman told police she was attacked by three men at a March 2006 team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper.

Seligmann and Finnerty, both sophomores at the time, were suspended from the Durham, N.C., university after charges were filed last spring. Evans graduated the day before he was indicted.

The rape charges were dropped in December, and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper declared the trio "innocent" while dropping the remaining charges last month. Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, who led the investigation before turning it over to state prosecutors, goes on trial next month for ethics violations connected to his handling of the case and could be disbarred if convicted.

Seligmann and Finnerty had been invited back to Duke once it became clear the case against them had no merit.

Finnerty remains undecided on where he will attend school.

"I'll be going in the fall somewhere," he told the AP during Monday's championship game. "Hopefully we can decide that soon and get things going back the way they should be."

Former Duke coach Mike Pressler recently completed his first season as head coach at Division II Bryant University in Smithfield, about 10 miles from Providence. Pressler was forced to resign from Duke last year and is releasing a book on the case next month.

The players affected by the cancelled season were granted another season of eligibility by the NCAA. The shameful actions by the university cannot be undone, and it was only small consolation that the Duke team did as well as it did a year after the scandal.