A regular season nothing short of phenomenal has wrapped up for the Blue Devils, and the ACC has given them their due.
Duke posted a near sweep of the major awards with graduate student Maggie Graham winning ACC Midfielder of the Year, sophomore Cameron Roller named ACC Defensive Player of the Year, Leah Freeman being named ACC Goalkeeper of the Year and head coach Robbie Church earning ACC Coach of the Year honors.
Graham, Freeman and Roller were all also named to the All-ACC First Team. Three more Blue Devils — graduate student Hannah Bebar, fifth year Ella Hase and sophomore Mia Oliaro — earned All-ACC Second Team awards.
All six players provided crucial numbers to the Blue Devils, who have not dropped a game since their season opener against Ohio State in August. Graham especially, who joins Quinn as the only other Blue Devil to be named as ACC Midfielder of the Year, has had a stellar year in her last season with Duke, being tied first on the team in goals scored. These are the first ACC honors of her career.
In just her second season at Duke, Roller has emerged as one of the top defenders nationally and a key part of the reason why the Blue Devils have only yielded 11 goals on the season in comparison to the 20 goals they gave away last year. In addition to being a key part of Duke’s lockdown defense, Roller has also tallied three goals this season and provided the assist on the game-winning goal in Duke’s victory over North Carolina in September.
Freeman becomes the first goalkeeper to be named Goalkeeper of the Year in two different conferences. Before transferring to Duke, Freeman played at Oregon where she was awarded Pac-12 Goalkeeper of the Year in 2022.
Robbie Church has won his third ACC Coach of the Year award in his final season as Duke’s head coach. Church previously won the award in 2011 and 2017, seasons that saw Duke win the regular season ACC championship and advance to the NCAA College Cup Tournament.
With the regular season awards locked up for the Blue Devils, they look towards the hope of winning the first ACC championship in program history and returning to the NCAA tournament after missing out last season.
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