In the span of three days, Duke played two NCAA Tournament games. In the span of three days, Duke scored five goals and gave up none. Exhaustion aside, this team isn’t letting go of its dream season.
After just one day off, the Blue Devils continued their homestead run with a 2-0 defeat of Michigan State in the third round of the NCAA Tournament Sunday night. Duke broke open the game in the fleeting seconds right before the halftime whistle after struggling to connect fot much of the period.
Head coach Robbie Church put it simply. “I thought we were really, really good tonight,” he said.
From the moment the match began, Duke (17-2-1, 9-0-1 in the ACC) played like it had everything to lose. Which it does — to let a season like this one end early would break a dream. So the Blue Devils roamed fiercely over the field, finding each other with clever looks as the Spartans raced to keep up.
Michigan State (14-3-5, 7-1-3 in the Big Ten) is a strong team, quick-paced and nifty with the ball. Duke, however, was faster. Whenever the visiting team had a chance to get the ball near goalkeeper Leah Freeman, another Blue Devil found her way in front of it first.
Halfway through the first period, the Blue Devils took turns firing shots at Michigan State goalie Kaitlyn Parks. With a barrage like that — from Hannah Bebar, Maggie Graham and Devin Lynch — it was a miracle that Parks and her defenders could get in the way, but the Spartans protected their untouched net. Duke was holding steady possession of the ball, moving quickly and playing smart. The only obstacle between here and the quarterfinals looked to be this final-third defensive fortress which Michigan State had brought to Durham.
“They were really disciplined,” junior Carina Lageyre said of the Spartans. “Their box defending was great.”
Parks ran her fortress expertly. Though she let in two goals, the Wake Forest transfer caught 10 saves in 90 minutes to hold back a team that scored 11 goals in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Her work kept the Blue Devils well below their 3.42 scoring average.
Parks’ toughness combined with Duke misses for a halting first period. Thirty minutes in, sophomore midfielder Mia Oliaro sent the ball sailing in a perfect arc from outside the box; it barely missed the crossbar. Duke still hadn’t made a mark on Michigan State when freshman Mary Long’s header went too far to the right of her goal, or when Ella Hase took a close-range shot or when Duke had its second corner opportunity. By the time the clock was down to five minutes, the Blue Devils had taken 12 shots and the Spartans just one, but they were stuck at the same score.
“This is the toughest weekend of the year,” Church said. You start the weekend with 32 teams, and now we have eight teams left.”
Finally, with Duke’s 14th shot attempt, Lageyre broke through. Long sent the ball high and hard from one side of the field to the other, right at Hase. The fifth-year forward tapped the ball in the direction of Lageyre, who boldly kicked it into the middle of the net with too much force for Parks to get in the way. Relieved, the Blue Devils rushed into a huddle around Lageyre, who had just awarded them the cushion of a 1-0 lead at the half.
With its two assists, Lageyre’s goal broke Duke’s program record for the most points in a single season. Hase’s assist — her fourth of the tournament — puts her at No. 1 in the country for tournament assists.
Just under nine minutes after halftime, the 2024 team made program history once again by tying the 1989 team for most goals in a season and taking over the 2012 team for most assists. Oliaro took another long-range shot, this time from out wide, which Parks deflected with a well-timed dive — but the deflection bounced right to junior Devin Lynch, who wasted no time in delivering before Parks could get up again. Duke doubled its lead.
“Knowing that it could really be the last time you're in a competition like this, you want to not only go 110%, but you'll dig deeper and find even more,” senior Katie Groff said. “We're going to give our all this tournament, and we take it one game at a time.”
And that was it. The Blue Devils fought through the fatigue of two tournament games in three days until the clock ran dry. They didn’t score again, but they also didn’t let the Spartans near their goal. ACC Goalkeeper of the Year Freeman had little to do; she finished the match without missing or making any saves.
“We don't talk about defending the goal that much,” Groff said. “We talk about defending the halfway line.”
With its slimmest margin of the tournament, the Blue Devils will move on to the NCAA quarterfinal, against either No. 3-seed Iowa or No. 7-seed Virginia Tech Saturday at 6 p.m.
Read all about Duke women's soccer's historic 2024 campaign here.
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Sophie Levenson is a Trinity junior and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.