Last offseason, Duke was motivated after missing the NCAA tournament for the first time in 12 years.
This year, the offseason fuel for a veteran squad that returns 10 of 11 starters has a different source—coming up one win short of a national championship.
“You’re almost the first loser,” Duke head coach Robbie Church said of the team’s 1-0 loss to Penn State in the College Cup final. “We were focused and were hungry last spring. We were embarrassed because we didn’t go to the NCAA tournament. I see some of the same traits. I don’t see the embarrassed part, but I do see the focused part and I do see the hungry part.”
A deep senior class will lead the Blue Devils in the fall, including co-captains Christina Gibbons and Lizzy Raben, who were members of a defense that allowed three goals in six NCAA tournament games last season without then-sophomore starter Schuyler DeBree, who tore her ACL Sept. 24 at Boston College.
Duke also returns junior goalkeeper E.J. Proctor, who was the College Cup Most Outstanding Player on Defense last year and notched 11 shutouts—the most in the ACC. The Blue Devils ranked 14th nationally in goals allowed per game with 0.6 but 55th in goals scored per contest, so Duke has room to improve how it creates offense after gaining possession.
“I would expect when we get here in August that we’ll probably focus a lot defensively but focus more on how to get an attack off strong defensive effort,” Proctor said.
Three other seniors—Rebecca Quinn, Toni Payne and Krysia Sikora—will likely play big minutes next season, with Quinn and Payne previously earning All-ACC accolades.
“They’ve all played a huge role in kind of our rise and a lot of those players have been on the field for a lot of minutes, too,” Church said.
Without their No. 4 recruiting class on campus in the spring and early this summer, the Blue Devils have focused on technical training through individual and small-group work with Church and assistant coaches Erwin van Bennekom and Carla Overbeck.
In the spring, Duke also played four exhibition matches to get some of its less experienced players more minutes on the field. Although the Blue Devils dropped three of them to Clemson, North Carolina and Virginia, Church said the games offered a chance for players like Kat McDonald, Mary Love Taylor, Anna Munro and Sikora to continue their offseason development, which could pay off in the fall.
Incoming freshmen Mia Gyau and Ella Stevens—the Gatorade National Player of the Year—will also be in the mix for playing time next season as the No. 7 and No. 11 recruits in the country, respectively, according to TopDrawerSoccer.com.
“We have a lot of players who are returning that played last year, but that doesn’t guarantee they’re going to play in August,” Church said. “We’re going to be deeper than we’ve been in a long, long time and maybe ever.”
New talent could help offset the loss of star midfielder Taylor Racioppi, who will likely redshirt to play in the U-20 World Cup in Papua New Guinea Nov. 13 to Dec. 3, dates that overlap with almost the entire NCAA tournament.
As a freshman last year, Racioppi started 24 of Duke’s 25 games and finished with a team-high 20 points from her midfield spot.
The U-20 World Cup is one of three World Cups, along with the U-17 and full national team competitions, and USA Soccer is expected to announced its final roster in mid-June. Racioppi—a member of the most recent international training squad of 21 players and one of only three current players to also play in the 2014 U-20 World Cup—is expected to make the cut.
“You’ve got to look at the other side of that, it just gives an opportunity to someone else,” Church said. “It’s like having an injured player sometimes.”
Although Racioppi will not compete with the Blue Devils on the field next season, she is participating in one of their biggest offseason endeavors as she prepares for the U-20 World Cup—a week-long trip to China. Duke left for Beijing last Thursday without its incoming freshmen and six returners due to summer commitments and injuries as part of the events surrounding the U.S.-China Consultation on People-to-People Exchange.
Among those not in Beijing with the Blue Devils are Gibbons and Payne, who have each recently played in four international matches with the U-23 national team, and Quinn, who took the spring semester off for the second straight year to train with the Canadian national team ahead of the Olympics.
But when Duke comes back together as a full unit next fall, the Blue Devils hope to have the same focus on returning to the College Cup final.
“We’re really lucky to have a lot of people coming back. Last year, I thought we had a deep roster but this year I think we’ll have an even deeper roster and everyone knows it’s going to be even more competitive,” Raben said. “The mentality this summer is going to be even more intense because everyone knows they have to come in their absolute best to play.”
Amrith Ramkumar contributed reporting.
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