Despite a strong finish to the regular season that included an eight-game unbeaten streak, Duke will not be competing for a national championship this year.
The Blue Devils, ranked 42nd in RPI and 38th in the most recent coaches' poll, were shut out of the 48-team NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year when their name wasn’t called during Monday’s selection show.
“[I’m] obviously disappointed that we didn’t get an at-large bid,” head coach John Kerr said. “It’s a shame because we were really peaking towards the end [of the season].”
Duke finished the season 8-5-6 (3-3-5 in the ACC), winning four of its five final regular-season matches. The team’s season concluded in the ACC tournament Tuesday night when the Blue Devils fell 1-0 to Notre Dame.
Ultimately, the six ACC teams above Duke in the standings earned spots in the NCAA tournament—Clemson, North Carolina, No.14 seed Wake Forest, No. 8 seed Virginia, No. 5 seed Maryland, and No. 3 seed Notre Dame. Duke compiled a 1-3-3 record against these teams this year.
Duke was very likely on the cusp of making the national tournament. Two of the final at-large selections—battling for the right to face top-seeded UCLA—were Elon and Clemson, both teams that the Blue Devils defeated in the regular season. Ultimately, Duke settled for too many ties this year, and its stingy defense—allowing just one goal per game—wasn’t enough for them to earn one of the 25 at-large bids.
Kerr lamented that his seniors wouldn’t get to play in the NCAA tournament one last time, and the heart of the defense will be moving on. Senior center back Sebastian Ibeagha, a first-team all-ACC selection, and goalkeeper Alex Long, a graduate student, have concluded their Duke careers, as have senior fullbacks Will Donovan and Rob Dolot.
Although this season is over, Kerr said doesn’t have many regrets about how his team battled over the latter part of the year, and he looks forward to capturing that spirit again next year.
“I’m very proud of how our team developed into a close-knit, competitive unit at the end of the season,” Kerr said. “We have to … [be] excited about our future because we’ve made some huge strides in the last six weeks of the season. We have to carry that over.”
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