Coming off a huge ACC season-opening win over No. 5 Wake Forest Friday, the ninth-ranked Blue Devils hope to carry that momentum and continue their undefeated run in a contest against No. 16 Virginia Tech at 7 p.m. tonight at Koskinen Stadium.
The Blue Devils and Hokies have a tumultous history, tying 2-2 at Virginia Tech in double overtime last September before Duke eliminated the Hokies from the ACC tournament quarterfinals, 2-0, in November.
"I'm sure they have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder," Duke senior Chris Loftus said. "We're going to have to match their intensity and go one above it."
This season, the Blue Devils (5-0, 1-0 in the ACC) are focused on containing Virginia Tech's (4-1, 0-1) main star, sophomore Patrick Nyarko, who leads his team with 10 points.
"We're just very aware of his speed," Loftus said. "He's a very, very, very quick player, so we want to make sure he doesn't get behind us too much."
Last season, Nyarko was selected ACC Freshman of the Year and scored in his team's tie against Duke.
"Whenever he's close to the goal, you really want to double-team him, whether he's on the left or right," Duke head coach John Rennie said. "We just need to have two guys on him whenever he's in the attacking part of the field."
The Hokie forward most recently scored the lone goal Friday in a 2-1, double overtime loss at Boston College. The defeat was the first of the season for Virginia Tech, which opened the year with wins over Navy, Maryland-Baltimore County, St. John's and William & Mary.
"You know that they're going to be coming out wanting to rebound after that [loss to BC]," junior Joe Germanese said. "But as far as we're concerned, we just have to come out strong. Virginia Tech's a good team."
Although Rennie said the Hokie team was not too difficult to prepare for, he stressed their defensive strength as a potential hurdle for the Blue Devils to overcome.
"They're a very, very hard team to score on," Rennie said. "It's the kind of game where we want to make sure we are very strong defensively, because if they get a goal they can just sit on it the whole game."
Tonight's contest marks Duke's second conference matchup of the season, and with six ACC teams ranked in the top 10, every game is highly competitive.
"The in-conference games are more important, and with the quality of the league they're all going to be battles," Rennie said. "Wars."
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