When the Blue Devils score at Koskinen Stadium, T-shirts rain down from the top of Kennedy Tower.
Midway through the first half Saturday, a wayward souvenir overshot its intended target and soared onto the Duke sideline, where it glanced off the back of sophomore Grace Fallon's head, causing her to flinch.
There was no complaining, though. It was a good problem to have.
Senior attacker Kelci Smesko scored six goals and sophomore Maddie Crutchfield netted a hat trick and dished out a career-high six assists as No. 15 Duke rolled past No. 4 Louisville 16-5 Saturday afternoon. For the second time this season, the Blue Devils bounced back from a disappointing mid-week home loss with a convincing weekend win against a ranked opponent, piecing together their most complete effort of the season.
"We had a really big fire under us. We were really upset about our loss on Wednesday and we’ve had a few games get away from us this season," Smesko said. "So far this season, we haven’t played a 60-minute game, and today we did. We did all the little things right that we’ve been working to gradually get better at every single day and that’s what made the difference."
A few days removed from a 10-9 loss to unranked Georgetown in which they trailed 5-0 in the first half, the Blue Devils (5-4, 2-0 in the ACC) turned the tables on the Cardinals. Crutchfield ignited the scoring with two of the first three Duke goals, turning inside and launching herself sideways to beat goalkeeper Brittany Read as she fell to the ground to give her team a 3-1 lead.
From there, Louisville (7-1, 2-1) had no answer. The Cardinals went scoreless for nearly 28 minutes of game time as the Blue Devils rattled off nine straight goals, seizing control and opening up a 10-goal lead with 25:21 left. Duke had success time and again by overloading one side of the field, then lobbing a pass across the crease to a cutting teammate running in from the back side.
The tactic created a number of fouls, setting up situations with Crutchfield and Smesko alone on the left side of the crease. As soon as the referee restarted play, one simple pass put Smesko in perfect position to slip a shot past Reade with no other Louisville defenders around her.
"Louisville really overloaded on ball side and we set that up in a way and had people in place that we tried to move the ball through to get those openings," Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel said. "[Smesko was] wide open on the crease. To her credit, she caught and finished on all of her shots."
Kyra Harney entered the day as Duke's leading goal scorer with 23, but did not have a tally to her name in the first 30 minutes. She changed that after halftime, joining Smesko and Crutchfield as the third Blue Devil to record a hat trick with four second-half goals.
Crutchfield assisted on two of Harney's four goals and four of Smesko's six tallies.
"Our chemistry is slowly coming together every day," said Smesko, who sat out the 2015 season following hip surgery. "I obviously didn’t play last season and [Crutchfield is] only a sophomore, so this is our first year playing together, but I think our entire attack as a whole kind of knew where each other was going to be today."
Senior Kelsey Duryea was busy between the pipes at the other end of the field, picking up 13 saves and reaching double-digits for the third time this season. Kimel credited Maura Schwitter and Isabelle Montagne with slowing down the Cardinals' primary offensive weapons, putting Duryea in position to save shots with either her stick or body.
Louisville also suffered from bad luck—the Cardinals clanked a shot off the left post late in the first half and appeared to have beaten Duryea just before the halftime horn, but the referees waved off the shot.
"I knew that a few of the girls like to shoot high, so just preparing for that and knowing that if I stepped to the ball and stepped to the right angle, I can make the save," Duryea said. "For us to play end-line to end-line a complete game was really important."
Duke will hit the Big Apple during spring break, taking on Columbia Wednesday afternoon in New York.
"I’m really proud of our kids," Kimel said. "That’s a tough turnaround in terms of the mental and emotional part of having to get back on the saddle and get right back after it and start preparing for a tough team like Louisville."
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