The Blue Devils' defense, which allowed a paltry 13 goals all season, was not enough to carry the team's low-scoring offense deep into the postseason.
"This season has come to an abrupt end," head coach Robbie Church said. "We had high expectations, but that's athletics. You have the highs of beating North Carolina in Chapel Hill and you have the lows of going out earlier than you thought you would in the NCAA Tournament."
For the season, Duke, which finished the year at 14-6-1, relied heavily on its defense, notching a school-record .60 goals against average. The backfield kept the team in a lot of close games-13 of Duke's 21 games were decided by one goal-and sophomore goalkeeper Allison Lipsher posted nine of the team's 11 shutouts.
"Everybody worked defensively from our forwards to our midfielders to our backs," Church said. "I thought that everyone did a great job when we all had to defend. Everyone was committed to defend."
The stellar play of the defense helped to make up for Duke's lack of goal scoring. The team scored just 34 times this season, in comparison to the 65 goals the Blue Devils scored the year before.
Senior Carolyn Riggs recorded nine goals and seven assists in 2004, but could only manage two goals and one assist this year. Juniors Darby Kroyer and Sarah McCabe stepped up this year to combine for 13 goals to lead the team.
"Last year, we scored a ton of goals," Church said. "This year, we had a ton of players returning. We went to a formation to try to put more players in scoring position. We didn't score as many goals."
Duke's season-long theme of low-scoring tight games was on display in its second-round NCAA Tournament matchup against Yale Nov. 13.
On the road, 10th-ranked Duke was tied at one with No. 22 Yale (15-3-1) late in the second half. But the Blue Devil defense could not hold off Yale's scoring attack, yielding a goal in the final second of the game and losing 2-1.
Duke found itself in a similar position Oct. 9 in Chapel Hill, but a key goal made the outcome more favorable. Tied 1-1 with then-No. 1 North Carolina in the closing minutes of the game, junior midfielder Rebecca Moros scored the game-winning goal with three minutes left in the match.
Based on that win and an overall strong season, the Blue Devils thought they deserved a home bid for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. But they were forced to travel to Yale instead, where their season came to an end.
"It was a tough situation being sent up there to play on that field," senior forward Kate Seibert said. "We didn't handle it as well as we should have, I guess. I think it will take a while for us to realize that we did have a successful season and that we did beat UNC."
Duke will have four of its top goal scorers returning next year-juniors Darby Kroyer, Rebecca Moros, Sarah McCabe, and freshman Christie McDonald combined for 22 of the team's 34 goals this season. But the Blue Devils will lose ACC Defensive Player of the Year senior Carolyn Ford and seven other seniors.
"This year, more so, we were very cohesive," senior midfielder Carmen Bognanno said. "There was not a lot of division in our seniors and our freshman. We were committed to one goal."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.