This was not the time for Duke's four-game unbeaten streak to end.
In their final regular season contest, the Blue Devils dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker at Clemson Saturday night, ending ACC play on a sour note and potentially jeopardizing their chances for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
Clemson defender Elizabeth Jobe scored the evening's only goal in the 36th minute, collecting a loose ball near midfield and weaving her way through the Duke defense before blasting a 27-yard strike past goalkeeper Allison Lipsher. The Blue Devil back four's hesitant challenges opened just enough of a window for Jobe to take aim, and the Clemson senior, playing in her final home game, fired with all the power she could muster.
"She just really did a good job of running at us," Duke head coach Robbie Church said. "She realized that nobody stepped to her, and she just unleashed a cannon right in the corner."
On Senior Night at Riggs Field, Clemson (9-4-5, 2-3-5 in the ACC) charged out of the gates with the reckless abandon of a team fighting for its postseason life. The Tigers needed the win to secure a berth in next weekend's conference tournament-and to preserve their hopes of an invitation to the NCAA tournament. Though the Blue Devils (8-4-6, 3-3-4) knew they would face a dogfight from the opening whistle, Clemson played like it had more at stake throughout the first 45 minutes.
"In the first half, I felt like they played harder than we did-they won a lot of second balls and were able to keep us pinned in," Church said. "They were a desperate team, and they played like a desperate team."
Clemson's energy and clear sense of purpose seemed to throw off the Duke defense at first, and the unit did not respond as it should have.
"We weren't as organized as we would like to be," defender Lorraine Quinn said. "We needed to be more on the same page. Some people were pressuring and some people weren't. We needed better communication as a team."
Lipsher made three first-half saves to keep her squad from falling even further behind, but her offensive counterparts could not equalize the score later, despite generating several second-half opportunities. For the game, Duke outshot Clemson 10-8, but only three of the Blue Devils' attempts were on target. Tiger goalkeeper Ashley Phillips blocked all three, the last a C.J. Ludemann effort in the 86th minute.
The nail-biting loss damages Duke's at-large résumé, but the Blue Devils still have one final chance to impress the NCAA selection committee at the ACC tournament, which begins Wednesday at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
Even though Duke made the postseason tournament with a 9-8-2 record last fall, it knows it must play as if there is no tomorrow-because if it drops its quarterfinal matchup, the team's season might very well be over.
"We're going into the ACC tournament like we need wins," Quinn said. "Nothing's guaranteed for us at all."
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