Duke and North Carolina met in Durham April 17 to decide the ACC regular-season champion. The Tobacco Road rivals will renew acquaintances once again Friday evening—this time with even more at stake.
The third-seeded Blue Devils will take on the second-seeded Tar Heels in the NCAA tournament semifinals at PPL Park in Chester, Pa., at 5 p.m. for the right to advance to Sunday's national title game. North Carolina claimed the first meeting between the teams by holding Duke to single-digits on the scoreboard for the first time all season and grabbing an early lead.
After beating Princeton 7-3 in Durham Saturday to advance to the program's first Final Four since 2011, Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel downplayed the revenge aspect of Friday's game and put the focus on using the rematch as an chance to improve on what went wrong in April.
“For us, the regular-season ACC games against UNC are important, but now this is bigger than that,” Kimel said Tuesday. “It’s the opportunity to win a national championship. Given the outcome of our last game, we’re just excited about having another opportunity to play this quality opponent.”
In the first matchup, senior attacker Kerrin Maurer put the first goal on the scoreboard 5:17 into the opening half to give Duke (16-4) the early lead. But North Carolina (17-3) seized control of the game with a blistering 5-0 run in an eight-minute span, which Kimel called the first time all season her team had fallen into such a deep early hole.
The Blue Devils attempted to orchestrate a comeback as Maddy Acton, Katie Trees and Kyra Harney delivered one tally apiece to trimming the Tar Heels’ lead to one goal with 6:23 to play before halftime. Yet, North Carolina did not let the rally get much further, cementing its victory thanks to goals from Sammy Jo Tracy and Aly Messinger to rebuild a three-goal lead heading into the locker room.
Another 3-0 run in the second half crushed any hope of a comeback, as defensive breakdowns plagued Duke on both ends of the field, rushing the Blue Devils into forced shots on the offensive end in hopes of catching up.
“It was the first game this season that our defense wasn’t sharp,” Kimel said. “That game affected us and made us question ourselves. We had to work really hard over the last few weeks to reestablish our confidence. From an offensive standpoint, we weren’t as productive as we would’ve liked to be.”
In the NCAA tournament, the Duke defense has responded, yielding just 12 goals in two games. On the other end of the field, a seasoned crew of attackers and midfielders must create separation to get good looks against a North Carolina defense that gives up just 8.0 goals per contest and limited the Blue Devils to 6-of-18 shooting in the first meeting—14 percent below their season average.
Maurer—who was named a first-team All-American this week—is Duke's top scorer and distributor with 43 tallies and 29 assists. Classmate Brigid Smith has added 37 goals, Trees and Trimble have teamed up for 69 scores and Chelsea Landon and captain Erin Tenneson have combined for 27 more.
Duke's offensive versatility and balance makes Maurer and company a tough cover—even for a veteran Tar Heel defense—having racked up lots of minutes as an offensive unit since they were freshmen.
“We [the seniors] are obviously a group of friends and our on-field chemistry has developed throughout these four years, and this relationship has helped us this year especially,” Maurer said. “In the Final Four, we want to take away the rivalry and just focus on ourselves instead of the face of our opponents and play our best game with confidence. If we can do that, we can beat whatever team that is in front of us.”
The winner of the Friday's rematch will take on the winner of top-seeded Maryland—the defending national champion—and fourth-seeded Syracuse—winners of this year's ACC tournament—in the national championship game Sunday at 8:30 p.m.
Claire Ballentine contributed reporting.
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