During the fall season, The Chronicle is polling its readers every week via its Sportswrap newsletter to highlight one Blue Devil athlete’s outstanding performance. This week’s spotlight goes to Mia Minestrella of Duke women’s soccer:
While the Blue Devils have dominated as a team all season long, it was sophomore forward Mia Minestrella who took over against Howard, tying the NCAA Tournament record for the most goals scored in a tournament game with four and becoming just the 10th player in NCAA history to do so.
"Obviously, you go into a game wanting to score and to score four is awesome and amazing,” Minestrella said after the game. “And as a forward, that's your job. I'm never like, ‘Oh, I need to score four today,’ or ‘Oh, I need to score two.’ That's not really what I'm looking at. It's like, how can I do my job to the best of my ability? And I scored four goals. So, today I think I did my job.”
Minestrella is no stranger to pressure. The Redondo Beach, Calif., native played in all 16 matches her freshman season with Duke, racking up a total of 587 minutes while also making the 2023 All-ACC Academic Team. But, despite her contributions, Minestrella didn’t score in her first year as a Blue Devil.
This changed drastically in the team’s second game of the 2024 season, when she headed the ball into the net against Nebraska. From there, the forward worked her way to what is now 12 goals and 705 minutes for the season.
“I was really, really proud of her, and really impressed with how she missed goals, but let them go,” head coach Robbie Church said. “And then, she was ready for the next opportunities and finished those opportunities. And, shoot, school record for scoring four goals … that's outstanding."
With an added assist from Minestrella, the top-ranked Blue Devils finished off the match against Howard with an 8-0 shutout — a much needed bounce-back after a devastating loss against North Carolina in the ACC semifinals.
Duke will now advance to the second round of the championship, hosting No. 8-seed Texas Tech in Durham Friday at 6:30 p.m.
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