A young crop of Blue Devils helped usher in a new era of Duke soccer with a bang Friday, but it was a familiar face who made the difference against Georgia.
In the team’s season opener against the Bulldogs, senior Molly Lester scored her first career goal to give the No. 24 Blue Devils a 1-0 win in front of over 2,000 fans in Athens, Ga.
”Lester missed all of last year and has just been working her butt off all summer,” head coach Robbie Church said.
A young crop of Blue Devils helped usher in a new era of Duke soccer with a bang Friday, but it was a familiar face who made the difference against Georgia.
In the team’s season opener against the Bulldogs, senior Molly Lester scored her first career goal to give the No. 24 Blue Devils a 1-0 win in front of over 2,000 fans in Athens, Ga.
”Lester missed all of last year and has just been working her butt off all summer,” head coach Robbie Church said. “For her to come in and score that goal….what a wonderful story.”
Lester’s goal highlights a triumphant return from an injury-plagued past at Duke (1-0). In just her first start in midfield, the Georgia native looked at home from the opening whistle. After senior Rebecca Allen and freshman Mollie Pathman tested Georgia goalkeeper Ashley Baker early, it was Lester who would finally convert.
A carefully measured Allen cross from the left wing found Lester in space on the right side of the penalty box, and the senior comfortably slipped the ball past a charging Baker into the left corner of the net to give the Blue Devils an advantage they would keep for the remainder of the game.
“The goal was a little bit surreal as I wasn’t quite certain that it had gone in,” Lester said. “I hadn’t done that before.”
Duke looked lively in the first half and likely should have increased its advantage before halftime. Pathman and fellow freshman Laura Weinberg troubled the Georgia defense with creative runs at goal, but Baker kept her team in the game with five first-half saves.
“I really thought there would be another goal scored by somebody,” Church said. “I think where we are right now, we’re better defensively than we are offensively—but we have the potential to be really good.”
Georgia (0-1) came out of the locker room determined to score in the second half. The Bulldogs kept the Blue Devils under pressure almost continuously for the final 45 minutes. Duke’s defense held firm, however, behind stellar performances from the back line. Fullbacks Erin Koballa and Maddy Haller kept the Georgia offense compact in the center of the pitch, and sophomore keeper Tara Campbell was solid.
“Last year we had to throw a lot of young players in the back, and they weren’t really ready to play… but [the wait is] paying dividends this year,” Church said.
The Bulldogs’ best chance came when striker Marah Falle received a cleverly chipped ball behind the Duke defense with room to turn and fire. Falle settled the ball and fired a left-footed shot across the goal, but the senior’s strike sailed into the crossbar and out of play.
Freshman defender Natasha Anasi was particularly impressive in her debut, frustrating the Bulldog forwards into submission. A first-half substitute, Anasi started the second period and racked up 63 minutes as part of a deep Blue Devil bench. In total, Church fielded 20 players in total, and he could have featured even more if not for preseason injuries.
“All of them are working extremely hard in training, and I want to try and reward them in the game,” Church said.
Non-conference clashes against powerhouse Missouri and No. 1 Stanford loom this weekend in Chapel Hill, and unproven players will have excellent chances to earn time as Duke crawls toward the ACC season, which projects to be one of the toughest ever.
With a quality win already in the bag, though, this young Blue Devil squad looks ready to compete with the best.
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