Defense attorneys announced there had been no DNA match between Duke lacrosse players and a woman who reported that she was raped and beaten at a team party that began March 13.

It was another important development in a story that has put Durham in the national news for two weeks. The investigation has scarred Duke's reputation and strained its relationship with the community.

But no one was ready Monday to declare the ugly event over. District Attorney Mike Nifong said he will proceed with the investigation.

"The nightmare continues," said Eugene Brown, a Durham City Council member who lives on Buchanan Boulevard, where the lacrosse party occurred. "And the national press we're getting is certainly not helpful to us."

At Duke, where the lacrosse coach quit and the season was canceled, officials said they won't change any decisions they have made. Last week, Duke President Richard Brodhead announced the appointment of five groups that will look into issues surrounding the incident, including the lacrosse program, campus culture, student disciplinary procedures and the university's handling of the situation.

"As both President Brodhead and I have said repeatedly over the past few weeks, we have to have confidence that the police investigation will ultimately reveal the truth," Duke Senior Vice President John Burness said in a statement Monday. "While the allegations in this case are extremely serious, it is important to remember that no one has been charged and that in our system of law, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty."

Durham Mayor Bill Bell urged residents to be patient with the police and judicial processes.

"There's been allegations, and we need to make sure the investigation has been completed," Bell said. "We haven't heard from the DA's office, and we're waiting on that."

In Trinity Park, the near-campus neighborhood where the party occurred and where residents held protests and vigils, residents Monday expressed dismay about the entire episode. Neighbors have had a difficult relationship for years with Duke students who rent houses there.

"I still blame the lacrosse students for creating an atmosphere where this was so believable," said Francis Conlin, a Trinity Park resident for nine years. "I'm not surprised, really, at the DNA. I think something probably did happen very wrong at that house."

On Duke's campus, newspaper and television reporters swarmed students crisscrossing the central quad. Many students declined to comment, some saying they were tired of the constant attention.

Several who had heard the news, however, said the DNA news was no surprise.

Sam Levy, a freshman from Great Neck, N.Y., said he was convinced of the team's innocence when its captains issued a statement two weeks ago denying the sexual assault.

"It was pretty bold," Levy said. "It told me right there that they knew the DNA wouldn't show anything."

At N.C. Central University, Mike Jones, a sophomore from Durham, said he expects an outcome in favor of lacrosse players, who are white, over the accuser, an NCCU student, who is black.

"It's racial," Jones said. "I figured they were going to get away with it because they were white and it is at Duke. They're going to protect Duke and those players, plus they have the money to do so. If this was at this campus, we would've been locked up."

Lacrosse players were silent when news of the case first surfaced, but their attorneys strongly denied the allegations. The lawyers said they had photos that showed the woman had cuts and bruises when she arrived at the house the night of the party.

For the most part, the players' families weren't ready to comment Monday.

A woman who answered the phone at the Sea Cliff, N.Y., home of lacrosse player Breck Archer said, "Obviously we were very happy. We knew they were innocent."

George K. Jennison of Richmond, Va., father of Duke player Jay Jennison, said: "I know most of the boys. I've been confident in the boys. ... It was what I expected. I guess I'd also add that I hope the community can now begin the healing process, because it's obvious this case has created a tremendous uproar."

He added, "If District Attorney Nifong looks at it and he believes a false accusation has been made, I hope that he pursues that as vigorously as he pursued the rape accusation."

Robinson "Rob" Bordley, lacrosse coach at Landon School, a private boys' school in Bethesda, Md., said the lack of a DNA match was not a shock to him. Five players on the current Duke lacrosse team, including co-captain David Evans, are Landon grads.

Bordley said he worries about lasting damage to Duke University, the lacrosse program, the players and former Duke coach Mike Pressler, who resigned last week.

"I don't know how in the world all the damage can be undone now," he said, "because all the western world has been reading about this for days."

(Staff writers Stanley B. Chambers Jr., Jim Wise, Anne Blythe and Jim Nesbitt contributed to this report.)