The renovations on East Campus continue. Next to the Southgate Gym, the construction of two new dorms is about to begin.
Just across the way from the construction site, over the rumblings of bulldozers, is where head coach Bill Hempen has been preparing the women's soccer team to follow up on the most successful year in the program's five-year existence.
Last season, Duke won a school-record 17 games, picked up its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance and advanced all the way to the national championship game.
But this season should be very different. After having five senior starters in the lineup in 1992, Duke now has a relatively inexperienced team with only six players that are either juniors and seniors on the roster.
"The easiest part is done now that we've got there -- and that was pretty darn difficult," Hempen said. "The trick is staying there."
The trick will be made all the more difficult with the departure of Duke's five seniors from last year. The losses of Jennifer Lewis -- Duke's first ever All-America selection -- and All-Atlantic Coast Conference and All-South performer Heidi Mauger, as well as starters Caitlin Connolly, Jennifer Moore and Dena Paris ended an era at Duke.
"We addressed that situation the very first practice," Hempen said. "I told them that we're not going to talk about that after today. They're to develop their own personality as a team. It would be like Coach K saying that we're going to replace Bobby Hurley. You can't do that. We're not going to replace Jen Lewis. It's a different team, it's a different time, it's a different personality altogether from last year's team."
On the field, the Blue Devils are undergoing a restructuring of sorts, similar to the renovations being done to East Campus.
"We have a lot of people that are getting adjusted to new people around them and new positions," Hempen says. "As far as players are concerned, it's not a bad team individually. But we are a long way from being a real difficult team to play against."
The losses of the veterans will be felt the most in the backfield. Duke does return Soccer America All-Freshman goaltender Melissa Carr. But the defense that held its opponents scoreless in all but three of its last 15 games returns only one starter, sophomore Missy Durham.
One of the people Hempen expects to emerge this season, however, and ease the losses of the departing seniors is junior Christi Monroe.
"I kind of anticipated that she would be prepared to play now -- she's a junior -- and she's gotten some playing time to the point where I feel more comfortable right now with her," Hempen said. "I think she's doing a great job."
If Duke's defense will be a question mark, its offense should continue to be strong. Discounting the 9-1 loss in the NCAA finals to North Carolina, Duke outscored its opponents 44-21 last season, and the Blue Devils return three of their top five scorers.
However, the offense has also been reconfigured. The key change Hempen made in the off-season was to drop sophomore Kelly Walbert, who led the team in scoring with 20 points last season, from the forward position back to the center midfield position.
"It's really a weird situation this year with this team," Hempen said. "I've got to put players where they're going to help us most. Maybe Kelly should be playing center forward but she's probably going to help us more as a center midfielder and that's just the way it is for us this year."
The loss of Walbert up front could, however, be compensated for by a return to form by junior Heidi Durham. Durham led Duke in scoring her freshman year with 19 points but tallied only one assist in 1992.
"Heidi was basically at [Walbert's] position," Hempen said. "Now that Kelly's moved back to the midfield, that position is open again and I think Heidi is playing as good now as she has maybe ever here in the preseason."
In addition to Walbert, the Blue Devils have junior Meegan McMullin (seven goals in 1992) and sophomore Katherine Remy (six goals) returning.
Duke's midfield should be shored up by junior Kristyn Woodside and sophomore Cara Lyons, who is healthy after playing much of 1992 with a knee injury.
With last season's surprising success, expectations are now high for the relatively young Duke program. But Hempen, who was named both Atlantic Coast Conference and National Coach of the year in 1992, is realistic about it.
"I don't think the expectations are too high," Hempen says. "I'm sure that there'd be a lot of people wondering, if we don't make it to the NCAA final, `Well, what happened to the women's soccer team?' But it's not that easy."
However, despite the challenges posed to Duke this season, in order to continue the growth the program made last year Duke will need to make a strong challenge for an NCAA bid.
"It was certainly our goal when we started the program, to get to that level, and we did," Hempen said. "And I don't think it was a fluke that we did. The hardest thing is now being able to maintain that."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.