Duke University's lacrosse players celebrate their 12-11 victory over Cornell on Saturday in an NCAA semifinal contest. Duke will meet Johns Hopkins in the title match Monday.

Baltimore ? The Duke lacrosse team has taken its season of redemption to the brink of a championship.

The top-seeded Blue Devils blew a seven-goal lead, then scored the winner from Zack Greer with 3 seconds left to beat previously unbeaten Cornell 12-11 Saturday and advance to the NCAA Division I title game.

Duke will seek its first championship Monday against Johns Hopkins, which defeated Delaware 8-3 in the lowest-scoring Final Four game in NCAA history.

The first game was a plodding affair, but the Duke-Cornell matchup turned out to be a classic. After the Blue Devils (17-2) let a 10-3 lead get away, Greer scored his fourth goal of the game, taking a pass from Peter Lamade and spinning past defenseman Danny Nathan before scoring in front of the net.

“It was an unbelievable pass, right on my stick. All I had to do was turn and throw it in,” Greer said.

The two games drew a Final Four record crowd of 52,004.

Two years ago, the Blue Devils reached the championship game for the first time. But their 2006 season was canceled following a team party in which a stripper claimed she was assaulted by three Duke players.

The trio were charged with rape, kidnapping and sexual offense. The rape charges were dropped in December, and the case finally collapsed in April when North Carolina prosecutors declared the three players innocent.

Under first-year coach John Danowski, the Blue Devils have since made up for lost time. After losing twice in the regular season, they breezed past Providence and North Carolina in the playoffs before meeting Cornell, which won at Duke 7-6 on March 20.

“We lost our season last year and came back with a lot of talent,” goaltender Dan Loftus said after stopping 16 shots. “I don’t think anyone on our team didn’t think we couldn’t make a run for the national championship. We’re here, and we’re just trying to make the best of it.”

In the rematch against Cornell, the Blue Devils (17-2) scored eight straight goals to turn a 3-2 deficit into a seemingly insurmountable lead with three minutes left in the third quarter.

But Cornell answered with a 8-1 run, drawing even on a goal by Brian Clayton with 17 seconds to go. Greer then scored his playoff-record 16th goal this spring.

“Our guys didn’t give up, didn’t despair and made a play at the end of the game,” Danowski said.

Dave Mitchell had four goals for Cornell (15-1), which came in leading the nation in scoring average (14.2).