In one particularly frustrating four-game stretch from Oct. 8 to Oct. 19, Duke lost at home to North Carolina, saw its 1-0 lead at Wake Forest erased due to lightning, battled Maryland to a scoreless tie despite posting 37 shots and squandered two leads in a 3-2 home loss to Clemson.
Just three days after the Clemson loss-what head coach Robbie Church called the team's low point-the Blue Devils responded with a convincing 3-1 win over then-No. 3 Florida State, easily their marquee victory of the year.
And so went Duke's 2006 campaign-a rollercoaster season that saw plenty of ups and downs and ended Sunday when the Blue Devils (9-8-4) lost to Tennessee in penalty kicks in the second round of the NCAA College Cup.
Each time the Blue Devils lost another heartbreaking one-goal game-six of their eight losses were decided by a single score-they bounced back with crucial wins. But every time it looked as if Duke finally had momentum on its side, it would run into more problems, whether in the form of cancelled flights or a stagnant offense.
"It was frustrating," Church said. "We worked hard all year long. We created a lot of opportunities, we just did not do the final part."
The relatively disappointing feelings regarding the season's final outcome may have rooted from Duke's lofty preseason expectations. The Blue Devils had a strong core of nine seniors and returned seven starters, including All-ACC selections Darby Kroyer and Rebecca Moros, from a 2005 squad that finished 16th in the final rankings. Duke also welcomed a highly-regarded freshman class consisting of five newcomers who would each play critical roles as the season progressed.
Three games into the season, the Blue Devils were 3-0 and had avenged a 2005 NCAA College Cup loss to Yale when they beat the Bulldogs in New Haven, Conn. 3-0.
Given Duke's performance, it was hard not to ignore the question: Could this team challenge for a national championship?
In its next game, though, Duke lost to Connecticut 2-1 and then surrendered a two-goal lead in the final 25 minutes of play the next Sunday against Kansas. The following weekend, in the Duke/adidas Classic at Koskinen Stadium, Duke dropped a 1-0 decision to Florida and tied Marquette.
A 3-0 start had morphed into a 4-3-1 record, and the ACC regular season had not even started yet.
During the ACC season, the team's resiliency became more and more apparent. They dropped out of the national rankings, but the Blue Devils continued to fight, waiting for that one perfect game to come together.
It finally did Oct. 22 against Florida State, when Duke executed Church's game plan perfectly, scoring three second-half goals to beat the Seminoles. Kroyer and Moros netted the game-tying and game-winning goals in that game-indicative of the senior captains' leadership throughout the season.
While the Duke offense was also bolstered by seniors Sarah McCabe and Lauren Tippets, freshmen KayAnne Gummersall and Elisabeth Redmond were the backbone of Duke's offensive statistics. Gummersall led the team in goals with seven, while Redmond paced the Blue Devils with seven assists.
With the freshmen and junior Lorraine Quinn, a scrappy midfielder who tallied six points, returning, Church expects his offense to be more active next year.
"We've got a lot of talent in the underclass," Church said. "We've got a lot of offensive firepower in that group, and I think we will score goals next year."
The defense was anchored all year long by unheralded senior Rachel-Rose Cohen, who started all 21 games and logged the fourth-most minutes on the team. Another bright spot on the year was the emergence of junior goalkeeper Allison Lipsher as a dominant force in the net. Lipsher posted nine shutouts on the year en route to a 0.89 goals-against average.
Despite their struggle at times this season, the Blue Devils could have finished second in the logjammed ACC if they had beaten Wake Forest in the last regular-season game of the year and were just one converted penalty kick away from still being alive today.
"We want to play for a national championship," Church said. "And we still have some work to do with that, but I think we're on the right track. We're not satisfied where we are."
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