By JONATHAN GANZ
"Overall, that's the longest stretches of time in a game that we've played so well all season."
That statement by Duke women's soccer coach Bill Hempen summed up the women's soccer game against Maryland on Sunday as the Blue Devils played their best soccer of the season in a 6-0 defeat of the Terrapins. Duke executed in all aspects of the game as it put on a clinic for the overmatched Terrapin squad.
According to Hempen the key to the Blue Devil attack was patience and decision making. He said that the team had stressed those two aspects of the game in practice all week.
That was clear as the team appeared to be toying with the Maryland team for large stretches of the second half by controlling the ball for a long time and making the passes that put it in good situations to score.
The midfield dominated the game throughout. The Blue Devil midfield, led by Kelly Walbert, Cara Lyons and Kristyn Woodside, controlled the middle of the field.
"The midfield all did a great job today, and Kelly negated all that the Maryland center-midfielder tried to do," Hempen said.
The Blue Devils started the scoring 19 seconds into the game as Katherine Remy scored her sixth goal of the season on a shot from the right corner of the penalty box that floated over the head of the Maryland goalie.
The rest of the half saw the team attack the Terp goal often. But the team was able to convert on only one chance the rest of the half. That score came at the 29:01 mark when Walbert scored her fifth goal of the year on a short shot from six yards out after receiving an assist from Lyons.
In the second half, not only did the Blue Devils dominate as they had in the first half, but they scored four goals as they kept the ball on the Maryland end of the field for almost the entire 45 minutes.
Kristyn Woodside made the score 3-0 at 56:22 off an assist from Remy, and then freshman Emily Studebaker took over.
Studebaker scored the first and second goals of her young career in the second half. Her first goal came at the 60:46 mark off a rebound from a hard shot by Heidi Durham, who played impressively all day on the Blue Devil attack.
Studebaker finalized the day's scoring unassisted at 85:40.
Perhaps, the most picture-perfect goal came at the 75:31 mark when Deanna Kreidel scored on a header from a beautiful cross by Mandy Lehr.
Overall, the Blue Devils tallied 19 shots on goal compared to Maryland's four. The offensive output was impressive as it was Duke's largest regular season margin of victory ever against the Terps.
Equally impressive, however, was the stranglehold that the Duke defense put on the ball in keeping Maryland away from the Duke goal.
Looking ahead to the next game against top-ranked North Carolina was a concern entering the game. That concern seemed unfounded as the Blue Devils used this game to ready themselves for the challenge of facing the Tar Heels on Wednesday.
"Every game for this Duke team is a challenge," Hempen said. "Win or lose it's just a regular season game."
It is obvious, however, that the next game poses the biggest challenge of the season so far for this young squad. And while it may be just a regular season game, one can be sure that the returning players remember last year's 9-1 NCAA title game loss to Carolina.
"The team could not be playing any better right now, and the difference is the decision making," Hempen said. "To beat a Carolina team one cannot afford to make many mistakes."
Duke played mistake-free against Maryland on Sunday and it hopes to do so again on Wednesday when it travels to Chapel Hill.
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