This weekend, the women's soccer team saw a pair of must-win games turn into couldn't-win games.
After suffering a 5-1 loss at the hands of fourth-ranked Florida (16-1) Friday, Duke (7-10-2, 0-5-2 in the ACC) returned home to face ACC foe N.C. State (7-11-1, 1-5-1) and came away with a 1-1 tie yesterday at Duke Soccer Stadium.
For much of the first half, the Blue Devils and the Wolfpack battled back and forth, firing one futile shot after another. State broke the impasse in the 28th minute as Shannon Blair drove an indirect kick into the net.
Less than four minutes later, Duke followed suit. Kasey Truman tapped in a header off a feed from Liz Speights.
Truman's goal would be the last one of the afternoon, as the two teams held each other scoreless through the rest of regulation and two overtime periods.
The Blue Devils feel the addition of Speights made the difference that enabled them to salvage a tie. The defender, who has sat out over a month due to injury, entered the game eight minutes before Duke evened the score.
"Liz hasn't played in a month and a half, and she gets the cross off, and Kasey finishes, so maybe good things will happen," coach Bill Hempen said of the tying goal. "I think Liz actually was a major factor in our attack today. I'm just hoping I didn't use everything she's got today, because we'll need her again Thursday [in the first round of the ACC Tournament]."
Yesterday's contest was the second time this weekend that Duke found itself in a 1-1 tie. On Friday it didn't stay that way for long, as the Gators went on to shellac the Blue Devils with four second-half goals.
"We were not happy at halftime, and we let the players know about it," Florida coach Becky Burleigh said.
Before its second-half deluge, Florida first lit up the scoreboard when Danielle Fotopoulos hammered a shot into the far corner of the net just two minutes into the match. Fotopoulos' goal, the 110th of her college career, made her the most prolific goal-scorer-male or female-in the history of NCAA soccer.
Worn down by Gator fouls, Florida committed 19 to Duke's two in the first half, Duke failed to even the score before intermission. Kari Juncker knotted it up less than a minute after the start of the second stanza, but the tie did not last long as the Gators followed with a rally of their own.
Despite allowing six goals in two games, the Blue Devils still stand by their new-look defense. With this defense, midfielder Kristy Whelchel takes on a more defensive role, helping Duke prevent breakaway goals by its opponents.
"I think we're a lot more organized in the back, there's a lot less chaos and there's a lot less breakaways as a result," Juncker said of the new defensive strategy. "We're not chasing the majority of the time."
What the Blue Devils feel they need to work on the most now is their offense. Recording only four goals in their last five games, they believe they will need to boost their scoring in order to succeed when they face No. 1 North Carolina Thursday in the ACC Tournament.
"We've pretty much tried about everything," Hempen said. "We'll just keep going.... We play all season to get to this point, so are we prepared? We're as prepared as this team can be. I wish we had a few more bullets to put in the gun, but I don't think that we do. This is our team, and we're going to go down there and try to change some things."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.