As junior Devin Lynch stepped up towards the ball, it was not an exaggeration to say Duke’s entire game rested on her shoulders.
The score in Berkeley, Calif., was tied 1-1. With under four minutes left, a goal here would all but secure a victory for the first-ranked Blue Devils, who had played most of the game down 1-0. Lynch expertly crossed the ball towards the goal where the waiting fingertips of goalkeeper Kelly McManus blocked the shot. Off of the block, the ball bounced towards the feet of Duke defender Cameron Roller, one of a crowd of Blue Devils standing near the goal. Roller capitalized, redirecting the ball back towards the goal where it finally found the back of the net and handed Duke the victory.
“We hung in there, fought, and scrapped,” head coach Robbie Church said after the game. “We just had to stay in and believe.”
That belief, along with the patience and composure one would expect of a veteran team, led the Blue Devils to pull off the 2-1 victory over the 17th-ranked Golden Bears and head back to Durham from their California trip with two victories in the bag.
Though they would end up going home with the victory, as they headed into the Edwards Stadium locker room at halftime, it looked as though Duke (11-1, 6-0 in the ACC) was staring down the possibility of its first defeat since its opening game against Ohio State way back in August. Already, the Blue Devils were faced with another scenario they had not faced in months: playing down. Before Sunday afternoon’s match-up, the Blue Devils had not trailed in a match for over 900 minutes, the second-longest streak in team history. They had scored a goal in the first half of ten consecutive games. But, from the moment the contest against the Golden Bears began, it was clear this game would be different.
The match got off to a quiet but aggressive start. Both teams played lockdown defense, not letting any looks get past their backlines. While in previous games, Duke had managed to eventually slip a shot past its opponents defense, Cal (10-3-2, 3-2-1 in the ACC) had seemingly cracked Duke’s code.
The Golden Bears crowded the midfield, refusing to let any Duke players get free. The Blue Devils have gotten used to using the midfield to outrun their opponents, but it wasn’t working on Cal. Even on the rare occasion when the home team relented and let Duke slip past for a look at the goal, Teagan Wy, California’s brick-wall goalie, refused to let any shots in the net.
In the 38th minute of the game, when it looked as though both teams would head into the locker room scoreless, the Golden Bears pressed for an advantage. Senior Velize King blasted past every Duke defender, streaking down the right side of the field. King crossed the ball to senior Karlie Lema, who proved to be a problem for Duke all afternoon. Duke goalkeeper Leah Freeman slid out of the goal to thwart Lema’s efforts but mistimed her slide, leaving the Duke goal undefended. Lema quickly shot the ball on an angle where it found the back of the net, putting Cal up 1-0 late in the first half.
Many teams would have gone into the locker room in a panic — Duke has rarely played down this year. But while the Blue Devils were behind, no one was counting them out.
“There was no panic in the coaching staff,” Church said of the mindset going into halftime. “We were playing well. We just had to do a few things different.”
Still, Duke came out of the locker room initially unable to break the Golden Bears’s tight defensive grip, and with Wy waiting in the box, any shots on goal had little chance of making it all the way to the back of the net.
But Wy went down with an injury in the 55th minute of the game, bringing graduate student Kelly McManus into the goal. With a new person in goal, the Blue Devils renewed their offensive efforts and finally found success.
Mia Minestrella, who had scored five goals for Duke off the bench going into the match, once again came through for her team. It was, like always, off a long ball from Mia Oliaro that Minestrella scored. Oliaro powered the ball towards the net where Minestrella was waiting to jump up and tap it into the net just past McManus. The Mias have connected on four goals so far this season. Minastrella’s timely touch equalized the score and alleviated some of the pressure on the Blue Devils.
“The character of this team is just unbelievable,” Church said.
Shortly after Minestrella scored, Lynch and Roller connected for Duke’s second goal of the night, saving Duke’s hard-earned ten game win streak at the last moment.
“Being able to come out of a deficit, it’s one of the first times this season we’ve been down,” Freeman said. “It shows us that we can.”
Knowing that they can come back from behind, the Blue Devils will head back to Durham still undefeated in conference play. They will face off against Boston College in Koskinen Stadium Oct. 19.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.