In their first true test of the young season, the fourth-ranked Blue Devils jumped out to an early lead and held on down the stretch to defeat conference foe No. 7 Maryland Saturday, 10-7.
Although Duke (3-0, 1-0 in the ACC) led by six goals at halftime, the Terrapins (0-1, 0-1) emerged from the locker room and rallied to within one goal in College Park, Md.
The officials waved off a potential game-tying goal when they ruled that a Maryland player was in the crease. Still up by one, Duke responded as All-American Katie Chrest notched her second goal of the game to put the Blue Devils ahead, 8-6.
“It was kind of an ugly shot, but I think I willed the ball into the goal,” Chrest said.
Neither team found the net over the next nine minutes, but Duke freshman Jessica Adam received a pass from senior co-captain Stefanie Sparks and recorded a goal to extend the lead to three with five minutes remaining.
“Jess Adam, I thought she was great,” head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “She scored I thought the goal that really sealed the game for us at 9-6. She scored with five minutes left, and I felt that that was a huge goal.”
From the game’s opening faceoff, the Blue Devils were the aggressors. Less than a minute into the game, Kristy Dirks found the net, and 50 seconds later Kristen Waagbo secured a two-goal advantage.
Although Maryland got a shot past Duke goalie Megan Huether three minutes later, the Terps failed to score again in the opening half. Meanwhile, the Blue Devils went on a 5-0 spurt, including two goals off of free-position shots.
“We started off really strong,” Kimel said. “We dominated possession, and I thought we had a couple of great defensive stops and caused a couple of turnovers in the midfield.”
Despite Duke’s halftime advantage, it expected to face a stronger attack in the final 30 minutes of what was a very physical game.
“We knew at halftime they were going to come out fired up—not many teams can hold Maryland to one goal in a half,” said Huether, who saved seven shots in the contest. “In the beginning we were a little unorganized and didn’t get back in transition. We made a couple of adjustments and fixed that up toward the end.”
The Terrapins rattled off five straight goals within the first 10 minutes of the second period, even though the Blue Devils attempted to slow their momentum by calling a timeout in the middle of the run.
In the end, Chrest and her teammates settled down, regained their composure and earned their first ACC win of the season.
“We proved a lot to ourselves and set a precedent that we’re going to have to meet and build upon the rest of the season,” Chrest said.
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