Clinching the No. 2 seed and getting a first round bye in this week’s ACC tournament, Duke plans to take full advantage of its well-rested team to come away with an explosive performance Friday against No. 3 North Carolina at 7 p.m.
The tournament, which is being held at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C., started on Thursday with the Cavaliers facing the Tar Heels and Virginia Tech against Boston College.
“We feel great and are really excited about the position we put ourselves in, getting an extra day of rest this week and basically spending all week tuning up our game,” head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “We’re not necessarily putting in a whole lot of new or exciting things, and we’re just trying to get better at what we’re doing.”
When Duke (13-2, 4-1 in the ACC) faced North Carolina (10-4, 3-2) earlier this season on April 15, the Blue Devils came away with an 11-10 victory at home. It was just one of many one-goal margins the two teams have seen in the past number of years.
“We’ve played them so many times over the years and had so many one-goal games that we would expect nothing less than a full-on battle for 60 minutes, and they would expect the same,” Kimel said. “A couple of years ago, the roles were reversed, when UNC had a bye in the first round, and we had a first-round game and turned around and beat them 14-4. We’re well aware that anything can happen in the tournament, and we’re prepared to do our best.”
Throughout the season, the Blue Devils have seen many of their players go down, notably seniors Sarah Bullard and Caroline Spearman, both of whom came back in the last few weeks.
But with their return, Duke is looking stronger than ever, especially having a young defense that has grown immensely this year.
“I think that certainly the injured players coming back into the mix has helped on both sides of the field, and I think we’ve definitely bolstered our defensive side of the ball and have more experience back there,” Kimel said. “In general, I see where we are based on our last game, and we fought really hard and showed a ton of hustle.
“I’m looking forward to building on that performance and playing a sharper game going into [the semifinals]. That’s what we’ll need to do if we’re looking to continue Sunday.”
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