All good teams are blessed with talent. Most can boast of a wealth of experience. The most successful add an element of depth.
But what separates good teams from the truly great ones often goes beyond just skill level or number of players. What takes good teams to levels of greatness is simply a matter of heart.
All season long, the women's soccer team consistently showed elements of a good team. Duke won when they knew they should, downing Mercer, Berry and Campbell in the season's first three games by a collective score of 12-1. It toppled William & Mary and SMU, both of whom would later join the Blue Devils in the NCAA tournament. In league play, it shut out both Maryland and N.C. State, and fell only to No. 1 North Carolina.
The Blue Devils, however, often failed to show that which would have made them great. Four times -- against Central Florida, Providence, Stanford and Notre Dame -- late-game let-downs had Duke snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Two other times -- against Florida International and Virginia -- slip-ups in the final minutes resulted in ties.
Eighteen minutes into the second half of Duke's first-round NCAA tournament match up with Florida International Saturday, junior Christi Monroe was issued a red card for an intentional hand ball, an attempt to deflect an FIU shot bound for the Blue Devil goal. Her teammates' first reaction was one of protest, a longing to keep Monroe in the game and to keep the teams even at 11-a-side. Next came resignation, as referee Don Wilbur flashed the inevitable card and sent Monroe to the sidelines.
But after FIU's Lisa Bliskis converted the penalty kick and the teams stepped to midfield to restart play, Duke produced the reaction that had been absent all season long.
Playing minus a player for the remainder of the match, the Blue Devils still managed to control its every facet. The ball seldom left FIU's end of the field. Its defenders never gave any pretense of clearing the ball to teammates, but looked only to safer targets in the stands. Duke forward Katherine Remy won over the hearts of more than one fan with her tireless hustle, contesting every FIU attempt to advance the ball upfield.
For the second half and the two overtimes that followed, FIU only outshot the Blue Devils by a count of 9-8, despite their one-player advantage. All of Duke's shots came from inside the 18-yard goalie box. Five were within 10 yards. Two were one-on-one confrontations with Panther goalkeeper Sue-Moy Chin.
This from a Duke team that tallied only two shots in the entire first half. This from a team whose third leading scorer, Missy Durham, played most of the season at sweeper. This from a team that has repeatedly frustrated coaches and fans with its refusal to shoot.
"It's amazing," FIU head coach Everton Edwards said following Saturday's game. "This year we've been down 10 men, and that's when we've played the best. Last week we played against Central Florida with 10 men, and we played great. We played against Duke with 10 men and played great.
"What happens is when teams get down to 10 people, they know they have to put out the extra effort, so they pick it up. We were lucky to escape from that period."
Lucky they were, and escape they did. Bliskis' penalty shot knotted the score at one goal apiece, where it would stay for the remaining 27 minutes of regulation and another 30 minutes of overtime play. Chin turned away blast after Duke blast in what she called "one of my best games this year." In the end, it came down to just five penalty kicks to decide the victor.
Duke could convert only two of its attempts, while FIU tallied three -- enough to cut short Duke's season earlier than anyone had expected. The luckier team moved on, the better one went home. So goes the game of soccer.
Next spring will bring the graduation of only two players from this year's Duke squad, neither of whom saw significant playing time. Next fall will see the return of seven current freshmen, three of whom were penciled into Saturday's starting lineup.
Next year's juniors include three All-ACC selections from this season and a goalkeeper named to last year's Soccer America All-Freshman team. Next year's four seniors have all seen at least one year's starting duty; two of them spent this year as the team's captains.
Talent, experience, depth -- these are the qualities that this year made the Blue Devils good.
It is the heart they showed on Saturday that will next year make them great.
Abe Wehmiller is a Trinity junior and an assistant sports editor of The Chronicle.
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