Duke proved early on in its season that patience is key.
After a heartbreaking finish to the 2023 season, Duke opened the 2024 campaign with another disappointing loss, falling to Ohio State on the road. But, instead of letting the early loss and the demons of the previous season define them, the Blue Devils took the patient approach as they began the journey of redeeming their past mistakes.
“We were disappointed. No question,” said Duke head coach Robbie Church, referring to his team’s opening game loss. “We’re result oriented, driven and we play every game to win.”
Prior to this matchup, Duke had not scored a goal or won a game in the last three contests, going back to Oct. 19, 2023. As the Blue Devils stormed into Hibner Stadium to face off against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, who boasted a vocal home crowd, they looked to change that and claim the program’s first victory of the season.
The Blue Devils accomplished all of those things, besting Nebraska in a decisive 3-0 win on the road to ensure that they did not return to Durham empty-handed.
“You could see it in training… you could see the momentum,” Church said. “We were determined that we needed to get this win tonight.”
Forward Ella Hase, a fifth-year transfer from Northwestern, took the honor of scoring Duke’s first goal of the 2024 season as well as her first goal as a Blue Devil. From the opening minutes, Duke’s offensive game plan had Nebraska’s defenders scattered. Though the Cornhuskers seemed determined to force a fast pace on their opponents, Duke refused to let Nebraska disrupt its patient yet aggressive approach.
A series of well-executed passes led to a cross by sophomore Mia Oliaro, which found the foot of Hase, who knocked the ball off the bar and into the net during the 14th minute of the game, giving Duke an early 1-0 lead.
After the first goal, the question seemed to be when, not if, Duke would score its next goal. Player after player took shot after shot at Cornhusker goalkeeper Cece Villa. The Blue Devils would outshoot their opponents 20-6, but Villa managed to save all of Duke’s attempts for the rest of the first half.
On the other side of the goal, Duke’s stalwart backline kept the goal box mostly quiet for fifth-year goalkeeper Leah Freeman, but the Cornhuskers did make some serious attempts to tie the game. Mere seconds after Duke scored its first goal, senior Sarah Weber, who has scored all of Nebraska’s three goals on the season, took an off-target shot at the net. Again, in the opening seconds of the second half, senior Florence Belzile sent a shot at the bottom-center that Freeman easily saved to keep her team on top.
And even though Nebraska charged out of the gate in the second half with a renewed, aggressive energy, it was too little, too late. Duke slowly ran away with the win, putting on both an offensive and defensive masterclass along the way.
In the 68th minute of the game, juniors Carina Lageyre and Farrah Walters took off in a foot race towards the Nebraska net. As the Cornhuskers defense collapsed, Villa was caught off-guard, and the goalkeeper was forced to retreat toward the net. Lageyre and Walters’ speed easily overwhelmed Villa as Lageyre came away with the assist, and Walters earned Duke’s second goal of the game and her first as a Blue Devil.
“That second goal took a little bit of time to go, but what a great goal,” said Church.
But two goals were not enough to satisfy Duke. As the clock continued to trickle down and the Blue Devils felt themselves in control of the game, they once again caught the Cornhusker defense completely off-balance. Oliaro earned her second assist of the game as she again crossed the ball over the assembled Nebraska defenders toward sophomore forward Mia Minestrella, who headed the ball into the net to solidify her team’s victory.
“Everyone’s pretty used to Mia slicing and dicing people,” Hase said of Oliaro’s contributions to two of Duke’s three goals of the night. “So that’s not really a shock.”
Though they started their 2024 season with two road games, the Blue Devils will now return to Durham and the familiarity of Koskinen Stadium. They will look to build on this victory with a five-game home stretch, beginning with UNC Wilmington Aug. 29.
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