Duke scored seven unanswered goals to open the second half in order to clinch the victory in its final game before the ACC tournament.
After falling behind early, the No. 8 Blue Devils (10-5) put together a 12-1 run to defeat High Point (8-3) Wednesday night at Koskinen Stadium, 16-7.
The Panthers took advantage of their opportunities from the opening faceoff. After drawing a yellow card on Duke midfielder Molly Quirke, High Point attacker Mackenzie Carroll scored a free-position shot just over two minutes into the game.
Although Duke tied the match at one just twenty seconds later, the Panthers would get two more goals off Blue Devil fouls.
“I felt like at the beginning of the game, we had a couple of tough calls that gave them easy goals,” Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel said.
And on the other end, the Blue Devils struggled to find much offense of their own. Despite winning the first seven draw controls, they only managed to tally three goals over that period. In addition, Panther goalie Anna Wallingford made eight first-half saves.
“We had good opportunities,” Kimel said. “I felt as though we weren’t shooting particularly well, but give their goalie credit. She... saw a ton of shots.”
High Point would not be able to hold onto its lead for long though. Behind two goals from midfielder Maddy Morrisey—including one with 14 seconds left in the half—Duke scored five of the next six goals to take a 7-5 lead at the break.
“As we were able to sub towards the end of the first half and we were able to pull people out and talk to them and be like, ‘Listen. We’ve got to look for A, B, and C,’ and we were able to get back in there and get those things done,” Kimel said.
The Blue Devils lost no momentum when they retook the field, notching two goals in the first four minutes.
Duke piled on five more scores before the 10-minute mark to extend its lead to 14-5 as midfielder Kim Wenger and attacker Kerrin Maurer each notched their third goals of the game.
“At halftime, we just talked about throwing fakes and keeping the pressure on frontside after the draw and going hard,” Wenger said. “And we started finishing in the second half.”
Despite the Panthers’ early offensive success, they did not even manage a shot attempt in the first 16 minutes of the second period.
On top of that, High Point barely held any possession over that period as the Blue Devils held an overwhelming 19-6 advantage in draw controls, led by six from Wenger and five from attacker Emma Hamm.
“They were known for being good on the ground, so we tried to get as many as we could in the air,” Hamm said.
Duke executed in a number of other facets of the game as well, clearing successfully 15 of 17 times, winning the ground ball battle 22-16, and committing six fewer turnovers than the Panthers.
“We locked on,” Kimel said. “I think we got a better idea of the things that they were looking for and we were able to just lock in as a unit and play more in-sync.”
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