Cary, N.C. — Amid the rain Friday night, Duke’s offense slipped up.
The Blue Devils scored a season-low eight goals and fell to North Carolina, 17-8, ending their hopes of taking home the ACC conference title.
“We’re disappointed in our performance,” head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “Unfortunately, this was not a great night for us to have the kind of game that we played.”
Emma Hamm scored back-to-back goals in the first two minutes, giving the Blue Devils an early 2-0 lead. The Tar Heels responded emphatically, however, going on an 8-1 run over the next 17 minutes to take control of the game. North Carolina didn’t appear to show any lingering effects from its game the night before, as the team consistently outhustled a fresh Duke squad that didn’t have to play Thursday.
“[North Carolina] did a really great job of playing fast and moving the ball,” Kimel said. “Our defense had a really tough time adjusting to their pace of the game.”
The Tar Heel attack was aided by a couple of badly placed Duke turnovers. Two failed attempts by the Blue Devils to clear the ball resulted in North Carolina steals, which the team converted into easy goals. During the decisive run, the Tar Heels proved lethal at finishing their scoring opportunities.
“We felt like they were capitalizing on our mistakes,” Hamm said. “If we weren’t finishing on our end, they were turning around and finishing their goals off.”
Senior Christie Kaestner managed to tally two consecutive goals to cut the Tar Heel lead to three with two minutes remaining in the first half and appeared to give the Blue Devils the momentum heading into the break. In the closing moments, however, North Carolina’s Corey Donohoe streaked into the crease unguarded. After receiving a pass from Kara Cannizzaro, Donohoe rifled one past goalie Mollie Mackler to give the Tar Heels both a 10-6 advantage and the momentum.
“Defensively, I felt like we were off,” Kimel said. “We wanted to refocus our game plan and shore up our composure and team defense, which I felt like we struggled with all night.”
North Carolina came out of the break firing, en route to a 5-1 run that effectively ended any hopes of a Duke comeback. Becky Lynch and Laura Zimmerman netted four goals, while Donohoe added three for the Tar Heels, who earned revenge for last week’s 11-10 loss to Duke.
“They were more prepared this time,” Kimel said. “We were trying to limit Corey Donohoe and her touches, and I felt they were ready for it. That threw them off the first time and took them out of their rhythm, but they did a better job of staying in a flow in their offense this time.”
Hamm led Duke with three goals, while Kaestner and Kat Thomas each added two in what was arguably the Blue Devils’ worst offensive performance of the season. Duke came into the game averaging over 15 goals per game, but scored a season-low on 8-of-24 shooting.
“That’s not very typical of us,” Kimel said. “We did not do a great job of capitalizing on our opportunities at all. We can’t shoot 30 percent in an ACC semifinal game and expect to come out on the winning end.”
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