An alarming trend has set in for the 20th-ranked women's soccer team recently.
Just like it did last Tuesday night against N.C. State, Duke relinquished an early lead Saturday night in Charlottesville, falling to Virginia (9-7, 3-3 in the ACC) 4-3 at Klockner Stadium.
Forward Alyssa Benitez scored the game-winning goal for the Cavaliers with just under 10 minutes left in the contest, when she dribbled past a number of Blue Devil defenders and slid a shot under the hands of goalkeeper Thora Helgadottir. The score was the second of the game for Benitez and her third on the season.
The loss was a major disappointment for Duke, which thought it was in control of the game from the start.
"We were up two goals 15 minutes into the game," coach Bill Hempen said. "That's probably the worst thing that could have happened to us, because it was coming pretty easily for us."
The Blue Devils' scoring commenced when midfielder Carly Fuller recorded her sixth goal of the season off an assist from defender Kim Daws less than seven minutes into the game. Only five minutes later, Duke extended its lead to 2-0, as Daws crushed a corner kick that was headed home by the Blue Devils' second-leading scorer, freshman midfielder Gwendolyn Oxenham.
However, after an 18-minute stalemate, the Wahoos fought back, as Benitez hammered home her first goal of the night after receiving a pass from junior Darci Borski, which cut Duke's lead to 2-1 by the end of the first half.
Building on their momentum from the end of the first half, the Cavaliers struck again early in the second period, when forward Katie Tracy knocked a shot from the top of the box past Helgadottir to tie the score 52:41 into the game. Less than 10 minutes later, midfielder Erin Engelhardt gave Virginia its first lead of the game, when she scored off a feed from fellow freshman Sarah Lane to put the Wahoos in command.
This lead, though, was short lived, as Duke's leading scorer Sarah Pickens netted a goal off a breakaway that knotted the game at 3-3. The goal was the eighth of the season for Pickens, who was recently featured in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" for her superior play.
But Benitez's game-winner proved to be the difference in the game, which dropped the Blue Devils to 11-5 overall and 4-3 in the ACC.
The loss was especially disturbing for Duke because it was its second straight and its third in the last four games. More importantly, it dropped the Blue Devils into third place in the ACC standings, just ahead of the Cavaliers and Florida State, two teams whom they likely will be battling for an NCAA tournament bid. Duke was in first place in the conference as recently as two weeks ago.
"We're finding that our conference is incredibly difficult to play in," Hempen said. "I think the conference is just ridiculously competitive from top to bottom-anybody can beat anybody."
The Blue Devils get a reprieve from conference play, however, when they host Conference USA foe UNC-Charlotte (10-8-1) Wednesday night at Koskinen Stadium. Hempen insists the 49ers will be pumped up to take on their highly recognized intrastate rival and points to his team's loss to UNC-Greensboro last week as evidence of the enmity that North Carolina schools have for Duke.
"[The Duke match] is a game that they're going to circle on their schedule, because it's an opportunity to knock off an in-state school with a big name," Hempen said. "I think we're in a lot different situation now than we were when we played UNC-Greensboro. We've been backed up to a point where we feel like we've got something to prove."
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