After surrendering a late lead to then-No. 18 Northwestern in a must-win game Saturday afternoon and once again falling out of the rankings, the Blue Devils desperately needed a confidence boost before facing No. 4 North Carolina later this week.
They got just that at home against Presbyterian Monday night.
With 11 different players finding the back of the net, Duke routed the Blue Hose 21-1 at Koskinen Stadium. Junior Kyra Harney led the charge with four goals and three assists—matching a career-high seven points—with freshman Catherine Cordrey contributing four goals of her own and sophomore Ellie Majure recording a career-high five points off of three goals and two assists.
“Obviously it’s been a tough season for us,” Blue Devil head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “Any time you have the opportunity to come on the field and put that many goals up by that many people, it makes you feel good.”
Although the game’s start time was bumped up by an hour in anticipation of a storm, Duke (8-7) looked ready to play from the first whistle. Majure opened the floodgates for the Blue Devils with a quick goal in the opening minute of the game. The Falls Church, Va., native assisted on a goal from senior Hayley Shaffer and, within the next 4:10 of the contest, Duke took a 5-0 lead, with each goal coming from a different scorer.
The Blue Devil defense locked down for the entirety of the first half, limiting Presbyterian (2-12) to just two shots and three draw controls before the break. The Blue Hose did not get on the board until there was 5:21 left in the contest, ricocheting a shot off of junior netminder Oralee Hespenheide’s stick and into the back of the net. Other than that momentary lapse, Duke did not allow a single shot on goal while racking up seven goals in the second half, regardless of who was on the field.
“Our game plan was to try to put a lot of pressure on this team through transition and force errors, and I think everybody who was on the field for us from a defensive standpoint did that really well,” Kimel said. “A lot of our low defenders did an exceptionally good job being ready for overthrown balls.”
With their contest against the Tar Heels just five days away, the Blue Devils cannot afford to celebrate Monday’s 20-goal victory for very long. North Carolina—which sits atop the conference standings—has lost just two games this season and looks primed to make a serious postseason run as the reigning national champions.
However, the Tar Heels' lone ACC defeat came at the hands of No. 8 Syracuse just last week. The Orange handed North Carolina a stunning 13-11 loss in front of its home crowd Saturday afternoon. Kimel’s squad will look to carry its momentum into this weekend’s contest and deal its rivals another blow.
“The one thing we’ve learned this year is everybody’s beating everybody,” Kimel said. “We saw that last week with Syracuse beating UNC pretty handily. We have a lot of work ahead of us this week to get ready. They have a ton of really dangerous offensive threats, so we have a lot of defensive work to do, and then their defense is good too.”
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