After a grueling weekend featuring contests against No. 6 North Carolina and Xavier, the Blue Devils will return to the field just in time for another pair of games in the blistering late-summer heat.
No. 12 Duke will kick off the weekend on its home turf, hosting Bucknell at Koskinen Stadium Friday at 2 p.m. before traveling to Norfolk, Va., to take on Old Dominion Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at the Old Dominion Soccer Complex. The Blue Devils will use this weekend’s games to shore up their play before facing three top-20 opponents in their next four contests.
“We’re ahead of where we’ve been in the past at this time, but we still have a long way to go,” Duke head coach Robbie Church said. “We’re not as consistent as we need to be. It’s still August and we’re still working hard and we’re trying to get consistent.”
After an uncommon scheduling quirk saw the Blue Devils (1-1) opening the regular season against their Tobacco Road rivals at WakeMed Soccer Park, both sides came out hungry to avenge their last meeting—a scrappy 110-minute scoreless draw in which Duke outshot the then-No. 8 Tar Heels 30-6 and forced goalkeeper Lindsey Harris to make 11 saves.
But despite outshooting North Carolina 15-10 in yet another overtime affair, the Blue Devils suffered their first loss to the Tar Heels since 2014 and ended a three-year streak of holding them scoreless through a cumulative 293:12 minutes of play.
With only two days to recover, Duke returned home to host Xavier, bouncing back for a decisive 3-1 victory. Although the Musketeers struck first with an unassisted goal from senior forward Tori Doss in the 14th minute, the Blue Devils fired back just two minutes later when junior Kayla McCoy converted on a feed from classmate Taylor Racioppi.
Fellow junior Chelsea Burns buried her second penalty kick of the season with 73:10 on the clock, and senior Imani Dorsey completed a half-field run and found the back of the net in the final 20 seconds of the contest.
“We’ve done some really, really good things,” Church said. “We’ve played three good teams [this season], two of which were ACC teams—one in an exhibition and the other in our first game—which is tough to come out and play, but in the course of the games we’ve done some really high-level things.”
Bucknell (0-2) is coming off a 16-2-2 season that culminated in its third Patriot League championship. The Bison received an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament with the win, but suffered a 6-0 loss to Penn State in the opening round despite their impressive regular-season record.
Although the team returns its two leading scorers in seniors Kendall Ham and Maddie Mulford, Bucknell has struggled out of the gates this season. The Bison dropped their first contest 2-0 to Syracuse—which they beat last year on the road—just two days before falling to St. Joseph’s 3-2 at home.
“They scheduled us on purpose because they had a lot of wins last year and then they got to the NCAA tournament and got beat pretty good, so they’re going to try to play these types of teams early,” Church said. “We’ve scouted them from the past week and I think they’re probably a little disappointed with what they did this past weekend, but they are disciplined, they can play, they can pass the ball and move the ball. We expect a really, really tough contest.”
Unlike Bucknell, Old Dominion (2-1) has started off its season strong despite coming off of a 7-12 season and losing in the first round of the Conference USA tournament. The Monarchs dealt George Mason a 4-1 loss to open the season before securing a decisive 3-0 victory against Albany, but suffered their first loss 3-1 to VCU Thursday night.
Old Dominion returns its two leading scorers in junior Iris Achterhof and redshirt senior Madison Hogan. The Monarchs also return senior goalkeeper Krista Moisio, who notched 58 saves and averaged 1.5 goals against last season.
Duke’s starter in goal will be far less certain. Senior captain E.J. Proctor—who has started in every match for the Blue Devils since her sophomore year—split time with redshirt freshman goalkeeper Brooke Heinsohn last weekend. Heinsohn delayed her first season in Durham in order to play with the U.S. U-20 national team at the World Cup, and her significant international experience has catapulted her into the conversation for the starting role between the pipes.
As of Wednesday evening, Church had not decided who would get the starting nod this weekend.
“[Heinsohn’s U-20 experience] has put her in a great match with E.J. who has a lot of experience playing in the ACC,” Church said. “Brooke has played at a very high level coming up to that and it’s put her in the race that most goalkeepers wouldn’t be in. Most goalkeepers wouldn’t come in and be in this kind of race with E.J.”
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