NEW YORK—Just as it did against Elon at home Feb. 25, Duke played to the level of its opponent.
Luckily for the Blue Devils, though, it only lasted for one half this time around.
Faced with a 6-3 deficit less than a minute into the second half, Kelci Smesko scored, and then attacker Kyra Harney turned her game up a notch, scoring three straight goals as Duke went on an 8-1 run to finish the game.
Behind three goals from Harney, four goals and one assist from Smesko and eight saves from goalkeper Kelsey Duryea, No. 14 Duke avoided another upset, besting Columbia 11-7 Wednesday at Robert K. Kraft Field. By holding the ball for minutes at a time, the Lions were able to limit Blue Devil scoring opportunities in the first half as Harney went largely unnoticed.
"I’m happy that we refocused and kind of got ourselves together to the way that we are capable of playing, and the pace and the tempo and a little bit of toughness on defense that we are capable of playing,” Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “We re-emphasized our offensive gameplay and made some changes defensively that kind of put us in a better position to play team defense.”
After a first half in which Duke (6-4) went an uncharacteristic 3-for-7 on clears and turned the ball over eight times, it buckled down in the second half, successfully clearing the ball on every opportunity. Freshman Olivia Jenner also got into a rhythm on the draw, winning back-to-back draws as the Blue Devils hit their stride offensively.
After Smesko scored just less than halfway through the first half, Duke’s offense went cold and did not find the back of the net for 17 minutes. The defense compounded the problem, as the Blue Devils committed defensive zone turnovers, leaving Duryea out to dry. The turnovers reached a tipping point with time running out in the first half, as Duryea was forced to cradle the ball for an entire minute because nobody was open. When the senior goaltender finally passed the ball, it resulted in a turnover.
As the game’s outlook began to look scarily familiar to Duke’s 7-6 loss to the unranked Phoenix, the Blue Devils turned to Harney for scoring. The Bay Shore, N.Y., native provided a huge lift, scoring three straight goals in less than three minutes to post her sixth hat-trick of the year and, more importantly, give Duke a lead it would not give up.
"We came out of halftime understanding that we’ve already had two unranked losses and that we couldn’t afford a third. We stepped up all over the field,” Harney said. “We didn’t come out playing [to] our full capability and performance and that we just got a little fire under our butt and we started winning the draw. We had more possessions on offense and fewer turnovers in the second half, so that resulted in goals."
Columbia (2-4) was resilient, however, trimming Duke’s lead back to only one goal with less than 20 minutes to play. Lion goalkeeper Kelsey Gedin—who came into the matchup saving only 37.1 percent of shots on goal—snagged 11 saves on 22 shots on target, and bailed out Columbia’s defense late in the game to keep the margin close. The Lions’ attack prospered in the first half by controlling the ball until they found the perfect opportunity, and Lindse Ewertsen, Taylor Quinn and Jessie Ambrose all chipped in with two goals apiece.
Although they were not happy with their first-half performance, the young Blue Devils left the Big Apple with exactly what they came to get—a victory—as they travel to Philadelphia to take on Villanova Saturday.
“We need to keep building on our confidence and keep building on our play. Anything that we can learn from is really important for us. Clearly we weren’t perfect today, but it’s definitely strides in the right direction,” Duryea said. “[We're] just building off of that and gaining momentum for the upcoming season."
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