Seven victories, no losses and 15.4 goals per contest. The season could not have started much better for the Blue Devils.
No. 5 Duke took down Virginia Tech 15-10 at Koskinen Stadium Friday evening. Normally the focal points of the offense, the Blue Devil seniors only broke out in the last twenty minutes of the game, but freshman attacker Kyra Harney led the way with three goals and three assists. Duke's seventh straight win marks the program's best start to a season in nine years.
“As long as they put goals on the board, I don’t care about who scores,” head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “Today the seniors were a bit quiet until the second half so it’s not surprising that the freshmen stepped up. We needed them and they gave us really good momentum to build our lead with a few goals. It’s fantastic.”
Duke (5-0, 2-0 in the ACC) took a 3-0 lead 5:50 after the opening faceoff and seemed poised to coast to its fourth double-digit win of the season. But Virginia Tech was not going to give up easily.
The Hokies (4-4, 0-1) scored back-to-back goals to tie the game 4-4 with 17:09 left before halftime. Seven minutes later, they took the lead as senior attacker Meg Bartley scored her third goal of the game.
Thanks to freshman midfielder Maddie Crutchfield and senior Katie Trees, Duke turned the game around with 9:51 to go. Crutchfield answered Bartley's strike a goal of her own just 27 second later on a pass from Harney, followed by an unassisted shot from Trees to give the Blue Devils back the lead.
Despite Harney and Crutchfield’s solid performances in the opening half—the duo combined for three goals and two assists in the first 30 minutes—the teams went to the locker room deadlocked at 6-6.
Harney said that the team was able to devise an efficient way to beat Virginia Tech during halftime.
“Halftime gave us the opportunity to collect ourselves,” Kimel said. “In the second half the girls were sharper, attacked more and moved the ball better in the offense to create more opportunities.”
Although Duke outscored the Hokies 9-4 in the second period, it was the Hokies who took the lead first as senior attacker Megan Will found the back of net for the third time. But Junior Maddy Acton responded for the Blue Devils, scoring twice in a 2:30 span to put Duke ahead 8-7 with 20 minutes left.
The Blue Devils never looked back, using a decisive 5-0 run to create some breathing room. Harney added two goals in the second half, and five Duke seniors stepped up and combined for four goals and three assists. Kerrin Maurer notched two goals and two assists and Taylor Trimble added a pair of scores.
“It is a dream come true being here as a freshman,” Harney said. “The team has been very welcoming and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
For Virginia Tech, the veteran duo of Will and Bartley did their best to keep things interesting, combining to score seven goals. Duke goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea made five saves, but Friday's game marked the first time this season that an opponent reached double-digits against the Blue Devils.
Duke will hit the road for a pair of games during spring break. The two-game swing begins Wednesday in Washington with a non-conference matchup against Georgetown, followed by an ACC showdown with No. 12 Louisville March 14.
“It’ll be fun to spend some time away from campus together so we are excited about these two road trips,” Kimel said. “We haven’t had time to focus on ourselves so we’re looking forward to having a couple of days to start building different parts of our game before we leave.”
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