Despite Duke's loss to underdog Creighton in the second round of the NCAA Tournament Nov. 22, the Blue Devils' season was far from a disappointment.
Duke entered the 2005 campaign with high hopes after a 2004 season in which the Blue Devils exceeded all expectations as the only unseeded team to advance to the College Cup-the final four of the NCAA Championships.
After an up-and-down regular season in which Duke went 10-4-2, including a mediocre 3-3-2 in the ACC, the Blue Devils entered this year's conference tournament with the fifth seed.
Over the next three games, Duke showed why it was the preseason No. 3 team in the country.
The Blue Devils rolled through Virginia Tech and then-No. 1 Maryland in the first two rounds and defeated North Carolina in penalty kicks in the title game to become the lowest-seeded team ever to win the ACC Championship. The victory captured the program's second ACC Championship title.
"I think we're very proud of the season that we had," head coach John Rennie said. "We had some great wins, we won the ACC Championship, we just had a disappointing game at the end."
Senior captain Danny Kramer echoed Rennie in saying that he was satisfied with the season and added that he has no regrets.
"I'm definitely looking back happy at what we accomplished," Kramer said. "Clearly you want to win every championship possible, but we won the ACC Championship, which is definitely a very big accomplishment, something only one other Duke team has ever done here. Yeah it's disappointing to lose in the NCAA Tournament, but clearly only one team can win the championship and this year wasn't our year."
After its run at the 2004 College Cup, during which the Blue Devils thrived off the youthful intensity of a talented freshman class, Duke may have become a victim of its own success in the 2005 NCAA Tournament.
Duke's largely intact core, comprised mostly of sophomores-had to cope with not being able to sneak up on opponents anymore. The Blue Devils were the team to beat.
"Last year we were the classic underdog," Rennie said. "Perhaps we overachieved at the end of the year.... This year there was a lot more pressure and a lot more awareness of who we were."
Whether they folded to Creighton because of pressure or not, the Blue Devils' second half meltdown against the Bluejays was indicative of a problem that had plagued Duke the entire season: finishing games.
The Blue Devils' defense was almost perfect in the first half this year. Duke scored 24 goals while allowing only two in the opening period. However, the Blue Devils actually lost the second-half battle to their opponents, allowing 22 goals while netting only 18 of their own.
Coach Rennie commented that he felt that his team's second-half struggles were not indicative of poor defense, but of difficulty scoring and a propensity to give up goals in crucial situations.
"It certainly is disappointing to give up a lead in the second half of any game that you play," Rennie said. "I think it was really a case of not scoring enough, considering we gave up the same number of goals this year as we did last year."
Although the Blue Devils played four fewer games this season than in 2004, Duke let up just two more goals but netted 15 fewer this year than last.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.