Kicking off her 21st birthday celebration, senior Andi Melde assisted on all three of Duke's goals as the women's soccer team defeated Wake Forest, 3-1, Sunday afternoon at Duke Soccer Stadium.
The festivities were dampened only by the Blue Devils' lackluster play for much of the game. After an emotional 3-2 loss to perennial power North Carolina Thursday night, No. 11 Duke was not quite ready to turn around and dominate Wake Forest (11-7-1, 1-6 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) as it was expected to.
"We put everything we had into our game Thursday night, and we gave Wake whatever was left," coach Bill Hempen said. "Fortunately it was enough. We weren't as sharp today, but we found a way to win, so we'll take it."
Duke (14-4, 6-1 in the ACC) opened the scoring 10 minutes into the game. Assisted by Melde and sophomore forward Kim Cahill, senior forward Samantha Baggett headed the ball into the upper right corner of the goal from about 18 yards out.
Taking the ball up field in the second half, Melde sent a pass to Cahill, who dribbled up to Demon Deacon goalkeeper Beth Klein. When Klein came out of the goal, Cahill slipped the ball by her with the outside of her foot.
"[Cahill] had so much composure and she just popped it into the back of the net," Melde said. "It was just a good run by her."
Off a corner kick from Melde 66:10 into the game, the Blue Devils recorded their final goal. Freshman Kasey Truman managed to get her foot on the ball as it crossed the goal box and knocked it into the net.
Three minutes later, Wake Forest countered with a goal of its own, and neither team was able to score in the last 20 minutes.
Melde's three assists Sunday continued her recent offensive outburst. She has either scored or assisted on 19 of Duke's last 22 goals.
This season, Melde has stepped up to fill many of the holes left by the rash of Blue Devil injuries. In doing so, her senior season has turned around her Duke career.
"I didn't want to make my last year the way that it's been going the last couple," she said. "I just decided to leave everything on the field every time I play and that's something I haven't been doing in the past."
Unless Duke is able to secure a home match for the NCAA Tournament, Sunday's match marked the final game for the Blue Devil seniors at Duke Soccer Stadium.
For those seniors, a lot of memories will be left behind on the field.
"It's really emotional," Melde said. "It's just really hard knowing that you're never going to sit in the locker room again and get into your locker and get out onto the field. This place is awesome. I've called it home for four years and it's going to be hard when I don't get to come back every day."
With the win, the Blue Devils set a school record with six ACC wins in a season, and secured second place in the conference.
Duke's next contest is the ACC Tournament in Winston-Salem. The Blue Devils, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, will face now-familiar Wake Forest, the No. 7 seed. The tournament begins on Thursday, giving Duke much-needed time to rest.
"We need a week off," Hempen said. "Our kids are just physically drained right now. We have to play Wake again and they're not a bad team. We were good enough to win today, but I don't know how much better we really were at all."
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