After having last week's game canceled because of rain, then enduring a hurricane, the sixth-ranked Blue Devils ran into another storm-and this one wasn't just a woman named Fran.
Sunday, under intensely humid conditions at Duke Soccer Stadium, No. 25 Nebraska pulled out perhaps the biggest win in its three years of existence with a 3-1 victory over Duke.
"We were just outplayed," junior sweeper and co-captain Lauren Cyran said. "I thought that the first half looked good. We were controlling the ball more, but in the [second half] we just got outworked. They deserved to win."
For the last couple of days, the Blue Devils (0-2 on the season, 0-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) practiced inside because of Hurricane Fran, and in the opening minutes, it showed. Junior Kari Juncker seemingly gave Duke the early lead when she scored high on Cornhusker goalie Becky Hornbacher, but the goal was disallowed because of off-sides. Despite the early strike, neither team dominated play in the first twenty minutes.
"We weren't very excited to start with," Duke head coach Bill Hempen said. "I think that the intensity picked up, and we got back into it. We were tired of getting pushed around. It was a physical game, and most of the early fouls were against them. We said that if they were going to kick us, we were going to kick back."
And with nine minutes left in the first stanza, Duke hit back with more than just a hard foul. Freshman forward Emily Feeney set up sophomore midfielder Kristy Whelchel for the early 1-0 lead. For the remaining minutes of the half, the Blue Devils controlled the tempo and peppered Hornbacher. Duke outshot Nebraska 8-6 in the first half.
At the close of the half, Feeney was taken down inside the Cornhusker box, forcing a penalty shot. Junior Andi Melde missed the shot wide left, and so the Blue Devils took their 1-0 lead into halftime.
"I think that we definitely missed some opportunities in the first half," Whelchel said. "We could have shut them down in the first half, and then in the second half eased back and defended. We hurt ourselves by starting the second half only at 1-0 and giving them momentum."
In the opening minutes of the second stanza, Hempen had his team push up, and it paid off as the Blue Devils recorded several scoring chances. Despite the hot conditions, the pace quickened while Hornbacher and Blue Devil goalie sophomore Dana Piper made numerous saves to keep the game at 1-0.
As the game continued, the physically bigger Cornhuskers wore down the Blue Devils, who played for the first time in three years without their own enforcer- senior defender and co-captain Mandy Lehr. Lehr suffered a knee injury in last week's game against North Carolina. With twenty minutes remaining in the game, the Cornhuskers finally broke through, as freshman Lindsay Eddleman knotted the game at 1-1 off an assist from classmate Sharolta Nonen.
"I don't think our kids thought that they would score, and when they did, they still didn't believe," Hempen said. "They weathered our storm, and we didn't do such a good job of weathering their storm."
With their new-found confidence, the Cornhuskers began dictating the game to the more experienced Blue Devils. Nebraska outshot Duke 9-5 in the second half. Cornhusker head coach Jon Walker believed it took a goal to make his players believe that they could compete against a team like Duke. As Hempen continually substituted players and mixed the lineup to keep fresh legs in the game, Nebraska tightened its grip on the game. In the 81st minute of play, Cornhuskers star Kari Uppinghouse shocked the tired Blue Devils and everyone else at Duke Soccer Stadium when she scored off an Eddleman assist.
"When it got late in the game, we had used so much of our energy to get those chances early and we didn't have anything to show for it, and we got tired," Hempen said. "We were still trying to go forward but they were getting a little bit more of the play and then a little more of the play. By the end of the game, they were dominating us."
And with 90 seconds remaining in the game, Nebraska's Kim Ratliff iced the game with a breakaway goal that left the score at 3-1. Ratliff slipped past Piper, who had moved to midfield in an attempt to push the action forward.
"I think that we took Nebraska a little bit for granted," Cyran said. "We have another game in 48 hours and we better not take UNC-G for granted."
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