The men's soccer team continued its impressive roll through the 1995 season with a 2-0 victory over Furman on Sunday afternoon. The Paladins realized early on that this was one of their biggest games of the year and made sure that Duke, the second-ranked team in the nation, did not walk out without a fight.
The play of the game was closely contested as Duke only outshot Furman 13-12 and Furman had 13 corner kicks compared to four for the Blue Devils.
"We were able to outplay them for the most part, but they came out hard and took it to us," junior Tony Volpe said. "They did a good job of taking us out of the type of game we like to play, but we did the things we needed to do."
The one part of the game where the Blue Devils did their domination of Furman was finding the back of the net. Sophomore Andy Kwon was able to start things off late in the first half when he knocked a shot past the Paladin goalkeeper at the 44:30 mark of the first half.
The only other tally of the evening was provided by Volpe at the 67:56 point of the game. Volpe, still starting in place of the injured Josh Henderson, has certainly made a strong case for himself for an increase in playing time with his second goal in as many games.
After a Bobby Moghim corner kick came his way near the goal post, Volpe attempted to head the ball back towards the middle of the goal to be played by another Duke player. The results were even better than Volpe expected as the ball went off of a Furman player's head and trickled in to the goal for an insurance score.
"This was another good win for us," Volpe said. "This was a road game in our region. This was big for the NCAAs, not only for getting a bid, but also for getting a good seeding."
At 9-1, the Blue Devils find themselves in a much different situation than last year. Duke had faltered early in the season leaving itself a bleak picture for any type of postseason play. It took a miraculous late-season run in order to gain an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
The remaining games in the season, beginning with a home match against William & Mary this Wednesday night, will carry a great amount of weight when it comes time to seed each team.
"We have a lot of big games in front of us," Volpe said. "We have three [Atlantic Coast Conference] games left this season. We're really looking forward to those games, we would love to win the ACC regular season [title]."
The main hurdle in achieving this goal will be the No. 1 Virginia Cavaliers who will be visiting the Duke Soccer Stadium on Sunday, October 22nd. Virginia has won the last four national championships and is favored to repeat once again this year.
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