Losing five seniors off of last year's NCAA tournament runner-up squad could have caused this year's women's soccer team to be branded with the dreaded "rebuilding" label.
Instead, the team blended its young, returning nucleus with some talented freshmen, overcame a difficult midseason that included a rash of injuries, and succeeded in earning the program's second consecutive NCAA bid.
"We had a lot of growing pains," Duke head coach Bill Hempen said. "That happens when you have a young group. Our goal was to get better every day. By season's end, this team was as good as it could be."
That end, a heartbreaking loss to Florida International on penalty kicks last weekend in the first round of the NCAAs, left the team with a final record of 12-6-3.
Four of those losses came to North Carolina (2), Notre Dame and Stanford, which finished the season ranked 1,2,3 in the country.
"Sometimes, I probably get a little overzealous with our schedule," Hempen said. "But I think in the long run it helped us become better, because we had to be better."
Such tough competition definitely forced the Blue Devil squad to try to raise its level of play in hopes of challenging the country's best teams. More importantly, it gave the young team a glimpse of where it wants to be in the future.
Duke returns all but two players for next year, neither of whom saw significant playing time this season.
The team's starting lineup for its NCAA tilt with FIU consisted of three juniors, five sophmores and three freshmen. Next year's team can be better because of its experiences against top teams this season, if everyone continues to work on improving.
Three sophmores that obviously did not rest on their accomplishments from stellar freshman campaigns were Kelly Walbert, Katherine Remy and Missy Durham. Walbert led the Duke squad in total points for her second straight year. She tallied a team-high nine goals and added four assists.
"Kelly got herself in position to score some big goals for us down the stretch," Hempen said. "When we needed her to play forward, she said `Okay,' and she carried us through a couple of games with her goal scoring ability."
Remy followed up her 13-point performance in her first season with a 19-point outburst in 1993, second on the team to Walbert. Included in this total was a team-high seven assists.
But Remy's contributions to the squad go beyond mere statistics. Her determination and relentless pursuit on the field make her a particular pleasure to watch, and apparently, to coach.
"Everyone around here should appreciate what they get when they see Katherine play," Hempen said. "When I hear her name, I just see her running all over the place. She's probably not going to get a lot of accolades, but I wouldn't trade her for anyone. The goals she scored were not easy goals.
"Neither were [Walbert's goals]," Hempen said. "Both of those kids are major pieces to this program. They followed up their freshman year with a great sophmore year."
Durham finished the year as the team's third leading scorer while playing much of the year at sweeper. Hempen had played her there as a freshman, where she helped the Duke defense record 13 shutouts during the season. This year, she was able to return to the midfield, and make good things happen on offense as well.
"She is as close to a Jennifer Lewis as we have on this team," said Hempen, comparing Durham to his 1992 All-American. "I was very happy that she got some recognition as All-ACC. She is a dominant player. She has turned into a monster."
Duke needed big years out of players like these to have any chance at surviving the injury bug that bit the Blue Devils last year. Last summer, long before the season had started, the tone for the team may have been set when senior Bridgett Arnold and freshman Mandy Manzanares suffered knee injuries. Both were expected to see extensive action in 1993.
Then, during the season, 1992 All-NCAA tournament team member Meegan McMullin was forced to miss some action with a strained knee. Sophmore Deanna Kreidel badly sprained her ankle in one contest, and then returned several games later, only to break her nose in a subsequent contest.
With all the other "minor" bumps and bruises his players had to negotiate throught the season, Hempen became better at putting together make-shift lineups than the New York Police Department.
This put a premium on the players being flexible and versatile enough to play wherever they were needed. The team responded to the challenge.
"Luckily for us, our kids were willing to change, to take a chance at a position that they hadn't been playing for a long time, in order for us to continue to get better," Hempen said.
"The kids were willing to do what it took to win. If it meant not being the star, not being the person that was going to score the goals, that was fine. And that was one of the many positives from this season."
With all the positives and all the experience and all the learning that took place this year, are the Blue Devils ready to springboard back into national championship contention in 1994?
It sure looks that way, and Kempen knows it.
"For me to think that this team can [just] go back to the [NCAA] tournament, I would be doing the program an injustice," Hempen said. "I think that the kids that are here have had that taste of getting to the tournament, and they want to get back. Hopefully, we can take what we've learned and get back to another challenge for a national championship in the near future."
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