Soccer Scorecard: 9/10/12

This weekend the men’s team traveled to Virginia Friday night and the women’s team took on San Diego Friday and Marquette Sunday while hosting the Duke Nike Classic.

Men’s Soccer:

Friday

Virginia 1, Duke 0

Duke’s first ACC match of the season started shaky after junior midfielder Lewis McLeod was carted off the field with a leg injury after less then a minute of play. The Blue Devils (1-3-0, 0-1-0 in ACC) were under a substantial amount of pressure defensively, but managed to keep the game scoreless for the first half. The reliability of the team’s defense has been a focal point for the squad, which has been struggling offensively this year. Duke managed only two shots to Virginia’s six in the half.

The second half proved fatal for the Blue Devils, as a goal in the 68^th minute by Cavaliers’ forward Will Bates lifted Virginia to a 1-0 lead. Duke managed to find a few opportunities on the other half, taking two shots on goal, but was unable to find the back of the net. The Blue Devils are now 0-2-0 on the road.

Women’s Soccer:

Despite losing Nicole Lipp and Kim DeCesare to injury and remaining without forwards Mollie Pathman and Kelly Cobb, the No. 4 Blue Devils (6-1-0) showed no signs of struggle as they glided past San Diego. Shortly after DeCesare, Duke’s leading scorer, sprained her ankle the Blue Devils rallied to take a 1-0 lead just nine minutes into the match as junior Kaitlyn Kerry headed the ball into the upper left corner of the net. Duke did not remain comfortable for long after an attempted clear by the Blue Devils defense hit off a defender for an own-goal that tied the match at 1-1.

In an impressive offensive effort, Duke scored three more goals before finishing the half, two courtesy of junior Gilda Doria. Both teams remained scoreless in the second 45 minutes, despite a number of promising opportunities for the Blue Devils. Duke out-shot San Diego 13-2 in the final half of the game and 27-4 overall.

Duke 5, Marquette 2

Building on their strong performance from Friday, the Blue Devils closed the Duke Nike Classic with another great offensive effort. Despite the initial struggle to break through the No. 8 Golden Eagles’ defense, a cross into the box found Laura Weinberg’s head to give Duke a 1-0 lead. Weinberg went on to close the half with another goal.

After 69 minutes of play the Blue Devils managed two more goals within seconds of each other to give them a 4-0 advantage. However, in just a six minute time-span Marquette netted two goals to cut the lead in half before Duke’s Gilda Doria secured the Blue Devils’ fifth goal. In just three home matches for the season, Duke has now recorded 17 goals and let in only three.