As 2024 comes to a close, The Chronicle’s sports department is reviewing the biggest moments from this year in Duke athletics.
At No. 1, Duke women's soccer ran through its regular season, undefeated after a loss in the first game on the schedule. The Blue Devils made it all the way to the College Cup to close out Robbie Church's 24th and final year at the helm:
In a disappointing 2023 campaign, the Duke women's soccer team, despite an abundance of talent, missed out on the College Cup bracket entirely.
Last summer, head coach Robbie Church announced he would be retiring after this season.
And so the stage was set — to any onlooker, this Hollywood script seemed perfect — a redemption story, led by star forward Kat Rader, to honor Duke’s leader in his final season with the team.
The Blue Devils’ first regular-season performance could have been the quick end to any dreams of storybook endings. Duke fell to Ohio State, a team that lost 6-0 in their only game in the NCAA Tournament the previous year. The Buckeyes were not one of the country’s top teams by any stretch of the imagination. It seemed like the fantasy had expired before it really began.
But sports magic always finds a way. Kerri Strug won her country a gold medal on a hurt ankle, the Red Sox came back from down 3-0, Tiger Woods returned to win the 2019 Masters.
Following the Ohio State loss, Duke won back-to-back games against Nebraska and UNC Wilmington, had a game canceled due to weather and awaited a matchup with archrival North Carolina. And when the then-No. 2 Tar Heels came to Durham, Duke got the job done.
With time winding down in a half, Cameron Roller sent the ball sailing, hoping one of her teammates would be able to track it down. After a lucky deflection off of teammate Mia Minestrella, Maggie Graham booted it home, giving Duke a 1-0 lead.
The Blue Devils held onto this advantage and took down their rivals.
The soccer gods, however, didn’t see the Ohio State loss as enough adversity for Duke. As the Blue Devils knocked off North Carolina, Rader went down with a season-ending injury, leaving Church’s team without its star.
Losing a player like Rader would be a crippling blow to many teams, but Duke’s magical season refused to be derailed.
Rader’s injury didn’t douse the flame of her team. The Blue Devils went on a blistering run following their rivalry win, going undefeated for the rest of the regular season, with four statement victories over top-25 sides. They beat No. 2 Wake Forest and surged to the top of the national rankings. A 3-3 tie against a later No. 7 Wake Forest team was their sole blemish, but after taking down the Tar Heels once again 3-2 in their last tilt of the regular season, Duke entered the postseason still the top team in the country.
Before tournament play, Church took home ACC Coach of the Year and Graham, Roller and goalkeeper Leah Freeman took home the hardware as the best at each of their respective positions.
However, despite its breakout season and magical run, the boogie man was waiting for Duke in the conference semifinals. In Cary, N.C., the Blue Devils fell at the hands of the Tar Heels, 2-1.
Their hopes at an ACC title dashed, Duke refocused and got to work for the NCAA Tournament. Despite falling to North Carolina, the Blue Devils were still the top overall seed in the country, and dispatched of Howard, Texas Tech, Michigan State and Virginia Tech en route to another date with North Carolina.
With the brightest lights possible in Cary once again, the two rivals took the field for one last matchup, this time in the College Cup.
The Hollywood ending would have had these Blue Devils defeat their rivals in a harrowing, tightly fought semifinal before emerging victorious against either Stanford or Wake Forest in the national championship game.
However, there are no script writers in college soccer. The team from Chapel Hill beat Duke 3-0, ending Church’s final season one game prematurely.
It’s always bitter losing in a final four to a rival team in a coach’s final season — Duke fans know this all too well. But this fall was a massive success for the Blue Devils. Minestrella and her roommate Mia Oliaro made history as a dynamic same-name duo, bouncing assists to one another all season. The former scored 12 goals on the season while the latter, a North Carolina transfer, notched 13 assists with her own eight goals. But even this pair couldn’t outshine Graham, who capped off her college career with 14 goals for the fourth most in the ACC.
The Blue Devils rocketed through their season with power and grace, celebrating each other as much as they celebrated their successes on the pitch. Two wins away from a national title, this season wasn’t perfect for Duke women’s soccer — but it was pretty darn close.
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All our coverage of No. 1 Duke women's soccer's historic 2024 campaign
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