In its home opener Friday afternoon, Duke gave fans something to look forward to this season in a dominating win against Richmond.
The No. 8 Blue Devils rolled through the Spiders to clinch a 17-4 victory at Koskinen Stadium to improve to 2-0 on the season. Duke showed off the depth of its roster with 28 different players seeing time against Richmond, and almost a quarter of its goals coming off the bench.
“We love it, I think that there’s something to say for a team that has a bunch of different people scoring as opposed to just a couple of people,” senior attacker Brigid Smith said. “It’s going got make our team a lot harder to scout.”
The Blue Devils began their scoring barrage with a fast-break goal from senior Kerrin Maurer in the fourth minute and never looked back. Following the goal from the Preseason First Team All-American, Smith put away a free-position shot and then assisted a goal by classmate Erin Tenneson that give Duke a quick 3-0 lead.
The Blue Devils continued to put pressure on Richmond (0-1), forcing 17 turnovers that Duke routinely turned into scoring opportunities. The defense held the Spiders to only 11 shots in contrast to 37 Blue Devil attempts. In addition, Duke converted five free-position shots and held Richmond to 0-for-3 on those opportunities.
“We practiced free-positions all week long and we took a lot of shots on our goalies,” Smith said of the defensive effort.
With 12 goals coming from seniors, the Blue Devils relied on their upperclassmen for the majority of the offensive production Friday. After scoring her 100th career goal at Elon Feb. 7, Taylor Trimble continued to find the back of the net, contributing a hat trick for Duke. But the Rosemont, Pa., native was not the only upperclassman to bring in points for Duke. Smith and Maurer added hat tricks of their own, and Smith led the team in points by adding two assists.
Although the Blue Devil veterans dominated the offense, freshmen Maddie Crutchfield and Jackie Perry netted back-to-back shots to tally the first goals of their Duke careers.
“Maddie, Jackie and Kyra [Harney] really came in ready to play as freshmen, we anticipated that we would use them,” head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “Our goal early in the season is to build our depth so that we can keep going to them. And for our freshmen I think that it’s great that they’ve been able to get experience so early in our first two games.”
The Blue Devils looked collected on the field despite the announcement earlier this week that Kimel was undergoing treatment for early-stage breast cancer after it was diagnosed last month.
“That’s always in the back of my head, I’m always thinking of playing for her, knowing what she’s going through,” Trimble—a team captain—said. “She comes to practice every day and gives her best. I think it’s just motivation for us all to do the same...she is a great example of what we should be doing on the field—in being tough.”
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