Maybe the women's soccer team should schedule all of their games on the road.
Duke (3-0, 1-0) scheduled its first three games away from home, but the team has still emerged victorious in each of its first three games-two of which came this weekend against difficult opponents.
Yesterday, the No. 22 Blue Devils squeaked out a 1-0 victory over an experienced Richmond team, outshooting the Spiders 25-8 in the process. And only two days earlier, Duke defeated a hot Maryland team 2-1 in College Park, stunning a Terrapin team that had just beaten then-No. 2-ranked Penn State last week.
Despite the fact that they were coming off a huge upset, the Terrapins and their fans were not as pumped-up as one might assume. In fact, Duke coach Bill Hempen said, Maryland's pre-game attitude might have actually played into the favor of the Blue Devils.
"[The Maryland fans] didn't seem as enthusiastic as I thought they'd be," Hempen said, "and the Maryland kids were still thinking about their win over Penn State. It was a perfect time for us to play them."
In both of its weekend matches, the Blue Devils' defense stifled its opposition, allowing only 12 shots from a high-powered Maryland offense Friday and only eight shots by the Spiders yesterday.
Needless to say, Hempen was impressed by the resiliency of his defensive unit, especially since he had described it as "unsettled" after Duke's victory against Catawba last weekend.
"Our defense is still unsettled in that there are four players who will play 90 minutes a game," Hempen said. "Its actually a nice problem to have."
One change that Hempen made on defense was inserting goalkeeper Thora Helgadottir into the lineup in place of senior Isis Dallis. The 5-foot-6 freshman from Kopavagor, Iceland, playing in her first collegiate game, replaced Dallis midway through the Maryland game to secure Duke's victory and then started for the first time yesterday against Richmond.
"We chose to [substitute Helgadottir] before the [Maryland] game even started," Hempen said. "If it looked like a game we could get Thora in, we were going to do that."
Helgadottir's initial performance was very reassuring for the Blue Devils, as she didn't surrender any goals on 14 shots this weekend. Richmond made a furious rally near the end of the second game that went unsuccessful largely because of Helgadottir's brilliance in the goal.
While the Icelandic freshman anchored Duke's defense, the offense was led by experienced forward Sarah Pickens, who scored in both of the Blue Devils' matches. In the Maryland game, Pickens headed home a rebound 20:29 into the first half to give Duke an early lead. After Terrapin forward Kim King tied the score with 6:11 remaining in the first half, Duke's freshman forward Ali Kopfman scored the deciding goal, which was also the first of her career.
In yesterday's contest, Pickens registered her third goal of the season and her second of the weekend when she dribbled from the midfield and beat Richmond goalie Kristen Samuhel at the 78:16 point in the second half.
After playing its first three games far from home, Duke will play its next two matches at a closer vicinity, as it will compete in the Nike Carolina Classic at Fetzer Field in Chapel Hill next weekend. The Blue Devils will face Oregon on Friday at 5 p.m. and South Carolina on Sunday at 1 p.m.
And according to Hempen, the Classic will be a chance to further gain the respect that the team has lost over the past few years.
"The way I look at it," Hempen said, "we're trying to reestablish ourselves, because, quite honestly, we've fallen off the national scene. So we're just looking forward to the opportunity to keep improving ourselves each weekend."
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