Shelby Scanlin received the quick pass from behind the net, steadied herself, then turned and fired perhaps the biggest shot in Elon history past Duke goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea.
Scanlin's goal with 6.2 seconds left lifted the Phoenix past the No. 12 Blue Devils 7-6 Thursday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium, an enormous win for a program just starting its third year of competition. The Elon players piled onto the field at the final buzzer, continuing their undefeated start to the season, as two-goal efforts by Scanlin, Stephanie Asher and Maeve Cowley landed the Phoenix a major upset and sent the Blue Devils to a third loss in four games.
After dropping its first two matchups against ranked opponents in No. 4 Northwestern and No. 19 Southern California—Duke (2-3) entered Thursday's contest seeking a bounce-back victory with Sunday's game against No. 16 Pennsylvania on the horizon. But an easy victory never materialized against the Phoenix (4-0), leaving many questions unresolved as the Blue Devils continue to trudge through one of the toughest nonconference slates in the nation.
“We’re disappointed to come away from today’s game without a win. [Elon] took up a lot of space with their zone defense. They forced us to take some shots that weren’t ideal,” Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “Even though I thought defensively we had some good stops, we gave up some things we shouldn’t have given up.”
By controlling the ball for spurts of five minutes at a time on the offensive end, the Phoenix neutralized an inexperienced and struggling Duke attack. After the Blue Devils (2-3) came out firing with seven shots attempts in the first 12 minutes of the game, Elon buckled down and held Duke to only five in the entire second half. The Blue Devils created opportunities, forcing the Phoenix into committing 32 fouls, but could not convert, including an 0-for-3 ledger in free-position opportunities.
The Phoenix dominated time of possession, holding their own against Duke freshman standout Olivia Jenner in the faceoff circle by winning exactly half of the draws. In the Blue Devils' two victories, they dominated the draws, leading to large portions of the game spent on the attack.
For the second consecutive game, the Blue Devils experienced a major scoring slump. In last weekend’s 11-5 loss to the Trojans, Duke went more than 20 minutes without registering a goal, and against Elon, the drought was even worse. The Blue Devils could not beat Phoenix goalkeeper Rachel Ramirez for 30 minutes—the length of a full half—during a drought that spanned halftime before leading point-getter Kyra Harney helped the team take a 6-5 lead with just more than 10 minutes left to play.
For large portions of the game, Harney was the only Duke offensive player creating any worry for the Elon defense, but with a swarming zone structure, the Phoenix double-teamed the Bay Shore, N.Y., native and forced her to give up the ball.
“We’re really struggling on the offensive side of the ball and I think that’s a by-product of our youth and some inexperience," Kimel said. "Our young group is having a hard time dealing with [zone defenses]. One of the points in our game plan was to be really proactive in the transition game, and we didn’t once run a first or second break."
If not for another seven-save outing from Duryea between the pipes, the final score could have been worse, especially after defensive staple Maura Schwitter exited the game with an upper-body injury in the second half. Late in the game, Duryea fought off an onslaught of Phoenix shots, as they methodically fought to regain possession in their offensive end of the field. Four of the Beverly, Mass., native's saves came in the second half, but Scanlin's shot was too quick for her to send out of harm's way.
Duke has a couple days off before facing the Quakers Sunday at noon, needing to right the ship after Thursday's defeat.
“We’re kind of getting some of our depth back. We gave up second-chance opportunities,” Kimel said. “For our defense, that’s a huge mentality—no second-chance opportunities. This is a set-back for us, but we’re working hard to figure it out and move forward.”
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