Sometimes, hitting the road can make a difference. After No. 25 Duke lost a close match 3-2 at home Friday against No. 6 Virginia, it bounced back on the road Sunday at Richmond to win 8-1. While the Blue Devils are 1-4 on their home turf, they are a slightly better 3-2 on the road.
“When we came out of that game, we were so disappointed on Friday,” head coach Pam Bustin said, describing the reaction after the Virginia loss. She said that the team “talked together about how we were going to bring that same type of focus and intensity to our next match. So we had a good practice on Saturday and went over some things and … I think after the first few minutes of Richmond, really got to work.”
Both teams were aggressive from the start Sunday afternoon. Less than four minutes into the game, senior midfielder Lindsey Frank scored for the Spiders (5-8) to put them up 1-0. However, that was the only goal Richmond would score for the entire game. For the rest of the match, Duke (5-8, 0-4 in the ACC) dominated without turning back. With six seconds remaining at the end of the first quarter, Duke equalized the score after senior Hannah Miller found an opening to score a goal.
The Blue Devils were firing on all cylinders, with six players contributing goals. Freshman Macy Szukics scored her first-career goal and the team’s second goal, giving Duke the lead with six minutes remaining in the first half. Sophomore forward Taryn Ringer also scored her first-career goal with the last goal of the game in the final minutes.
However, the star of the game was sophomore forward Issy Carey, who notched a natural hat trick with three goals Sunday. At the end of the first half, Carey impacted both sides of the game by first forcing a turnover. On the other end, she scored off a penalty corner to give Duke a 3-1 halftime lead. Carey was not done, as she came out of halftime aggressive and ready to continue to impact the game.
All in less than 20 seconds, Carey registered two goals to turn a close match into Duke’s game to lose. After Mary Harkins missed her attempt, Carey recovered and scored her second goal. Then, Josie Varney and Carey connected on a through ball for Carey’s third goal of the game. The hat trick is a remarkable achievement for Carey, who missed last season due to injury.
“Issy every day is just getting better and getting more comfortable and playing the game again. after having such a long hiatus from it. And so we just continue to talk about taking it one day at a time and one play at a time and she's really been good about that,” Bustin said. “I was really excited for her because she scored three goals in three different manners. She scored a stroke, she scored on a corner and she scored a field goal. So that's pretty awesome.”
Duke had a strong advantage in shots and penalty corners, leading in both categories 21-9 and 6-0, respectively, with a more aggressive offense and defense than in Friday’s loss against Virginia. The Cavaliers took home-turf advantage from the Blue Devils with an 18-4 advantage in shots and 10-1 advantage in penalty corners.
After no team scored in the first quarter, Virginia came out strong in the second quarter, taking the 1-0 lead. Miller, just minutes later, inserted the penalty corner and after the ball bounced around, tied the score at 1-1.
However, Duke was unable to stop Virginia from scoring two straight goals to lead 3-1 after the first half. While the Blue Devils were much stronger in the second half, it was to no avail. Duke got one goal from Carey in the third quarter but was unable to equalize.
“I thought we grew stronger as the game went on,” Bustin said. “Against Virginia, unfortunately, didn't have the best first half and that kind of got us in trouble and had to really work from behind.”
Duke travels to Louisville at 6 p.m. Friday and Bellarmine at 11 a.m. Sunday.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.