Virginia visits Duke women's soccer for primetime top-5 showdown with major ACC implications

With four games left in the regular season, the Blue Devils are the only undefeated team in the ACC despite playing without three starters for much of the last two weeks.

The question now is whether Duke can earn a regular season conference championship by knocking off a pair of top-10 teams the next two weeks. 

The No. 4 Blue Devils will look to add to their longest winning streak of the year when they welcome No. 5 Virginia to Koskinen Stadium Saturday at 7 p.m. With a road test at No. 9 Florida State scheduled for next week, Duke has a chance to maintain control in the battle for the ACC regular season title if it can continue growing led by its veteran stars.

Following wins at Wake Forest and N.C. State, the Blue Devils moved up five spots in this week’s rankings and are playing like a legitimate national title contender late in the year. 

“I really don’t even think this team gets as much credit as they need to get,” Duke head coach Robbie Church said. “I think everyone just thinks, ‘Well you’ve got 10 starters back, a great recruiting class,’ but we’ve lost these three players that are just big-time and I don’t think there’s anybody in the country who’s had these kind of losses.”

Although the Blue Devils (10-2-2, 5-0-1 in the ACC) lost sophomore Kayla McCoy and senior Rebecca Quinn for the year and have been without sophomore Taylor Racioppi for several weeks, senior Christina Gibbons and the team’s veterans have adjusted to get Duke’s offense in gear.

The team’s leader in assists, Gibbons has started the past few games at midfield, wreaking havoc against opposing defenses by creating scoring opportunities with timely crosses into the box to Imani Dorsey, Ella Stevens and Toni Payne. The Blue Devils’ leading scorers have combined for 19 goals this year, and have adjusted well even with McCoy no longer in the rotation up front. 

Against its first top-10 opponent since Sept. 9, Duke will look to keep creating scoring chances to test Cavalier goalkeeper Morgan Stearns, whose seven shutouts are tied for tops in the ACC. Virginia (10-2-2, 3-1-2) has not lost a game since Sept. 22, tying conference powers in Florida State and North Carolina and knocking off Pittsburgh and Notre Dame to come into Saturday’s contest with momentum of its own.

Led by Stearns, who allowed just two goals during that four-game stretch, the Cavaliers handed the Fighting Irish their first ACC loss Sunday.

Like the Blue Devils, Virginia averages more than 2.5 goals per game and will try to slow down a Duke team that has allowed one goal in its last five games and gotten key contributions from its bench. 

“We’ve lost three really good players. I think in the past if we had lost those players, it could be devastating for teams that we had,” Church said. “But this one, we’re fortunate that we’re really deep and people have changed roles and they’ve accepted their roles and really worked hard.” 

Alexis Shaffer leads the Cavalier offense with nine goals this year—tied for second in the ACC—and is one of three players with five goals this season for Virginia, which has outscored opponents 37-7 this season. 

The Cavaliers have won four straight regular season games against the Blue Devils, but to continue that streak will have to find a way to get past Duke goalkeeper EJ Proctor, who appears to be rounding into form. 

Against N.C. State, the junior saved a key penalty kick to preserve the Blue Devils’ lead before the offense added two insurance goals, and the 2015 College Cup Most Outstanding Player on Defense made five other saves to stymie a hot Wolfpack team. 

If Virginia can find openings against Duke’s back line, it will be up to Proctor to keep her team within striking distance, something she and the defense were unable to do when then-No. 4 West Virginia handed the Blue Devils a 3-1 setback in Durham early in the season.

But Duke has looked like a different team lately, meaning Saturday’s contest is shaping up to a thriller between two Final Four contenders. 

“We’re not done,” Church said. “The regular season has been great, we’ve been fortunate to be involved in some really big games, but you know, the fun time is really coming through. We want to play for those championships.”