A somewhat disappointing trip to Maryland this weekend was cut short, leaving No. 4 Duke with only a loss to open its conference season. Falling first to the top-ranked Maryland Terrapins by a score of 18-11, Duke was then forced to return home, postponing its game against Johns Hopkins due to impending bad weather.
Although Duke (1-1, 0-1 in the ACC) produced several strong offensive attacks, the back-and-forth battle seemed to favor Maryland (1-0, 1-0) throughout both halves. The Terrapins produced two quick goals in the first five minutes, throwing the Blue Devils off guard and setting the pace of the game.
"Maryland was on a roll," Duke coach Kristen Kimel said. "They made very few mistakes and were simply more ready to play."
Lauren Gallagher was the first to respond to the Maryland threat, putting Duke on the scoreboard nine minutes into the first half. Gallagher's unassisted goal was the first of three that she contributed to Duke's attack.
Although Kate Kaiser and Kate Soulier also mixed in a few goals for Duke before the half, the Blue Devils still trailed 8-4 at halftime.
The gap widened, however, in the first 10 minutes of the second half as Maryland quickly tallied six more goals, claiming a 14-6 lead with 20 minutes left to play. All-America candidate Courtney Hobbs and two-time player of the year Jen Adams were among the leaders of the Terrapins' scoring force.
Kimel targeted her team's man-down defense as Duke's weakness of the game. "Goalie Kristen Foster saw a number of uncontested shots," she said. "We need to take our next 10 days off to really concentrate on our defensive strategy."
Leading the second half attack for Duke was Kaiser, who tallied an impressive five goals for the Blue Devils. Individual efforts, unfortunately, were not enough for Duke to overtake the Terrapins' sharp defensive strategy. Trailing by 10 in the last seven minutes, Kaiser and Courtney Rodgers finally produced the comeback Duke had been waiting for all game, netting three consecutive goals. But their efforts were cut short as time ran out, leaving Maryland victorious.
"We are really a much better team then the one that showed up to play on Friday," Kimel said. "We will just have to take the hard lessons we learned and turn them into positives."
The disappointment continued for the Blue Devils when they lost the chance to compensate for their defeat. Due to possible winter storm conditions in Baltimore yesterday, their contest against 17th-ranked Johns Hopkins, which was originally scheduled for 1 p.m., has been postponed to an undetermined date.
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