GREENSBORO - Quick, painless, efficient.
The women's soccer team easily dispatched Florida International and Central Florida over the weekend with two decisive victories. With the sweep, the Blue Devils (5-4-1) hope they have turned the corner on what has been a tumultuous early season.
"Our kids have always thought they were playing well," said Duke coach Bill Hempen, whose Blue Devils entered the weekend with a record below .500. "They got confidence from this weekend. We did some good things this weekend."
The Blue Devils simply dominated the weekend, scoring four goals in Friday's shutout win over Florida International and five more in Sunday's 5-1 win over Central Florida. Duke's defense was also dominant, yielding only four shots and one goal in the two games. For long stretches in both games, it looked as if Duke was simply toying with its opponents. The Blue Devils kept the ball in their offensive end for stretches of five minutes or more without the ball crossing midfield.
After struggling to find the net all season, Hempen was pleased to see Duke score early and often in the victories.
"There's such a fine line between whether or not the ball is going in the net for you," Hempen said. "We did some thing in practice to work on finishing, and it was a point of emphasis for us."
Sunday's contest against Central Florida was scoreless for the first 25 minutes as both teams took some time to get acclimated and comfortable with each other. That changed quickly for Duke, though, in the 26th minute when midfielder Mandy Lehr served the ball into the box to Kristy Whelchel, who received the pass and turned to shoot, only to be taken down by two Golden Panther defenders.
The foul resulted in a penalty kick, which freshman forward Emily Feeney converted with a hard, low line drive into the bottom left corner of the net. After that, it was simply a continuation of a trend that had begun on Friday night in Duke's 4-0 victory over Florida International-shoot, shoot and shoot some more.
Whelchel added two more goals before the half ended, giving her three goals for the weekend. With just over seven minutes left in the half there was a scramble in front of the Central Florida goal. The Golden Panther goalie came off the line to deflect the shot, but the rebound went directly to Whelchel, who pounded it into the right hand corner of the net from 10 yards out.
Two minutes later Whelchel scored one of Duke's prettiest goals of the year when she and Lehr hooked up again. This time Lehr sent a free kick from 40 yards out into the box where Whelchel got her head on the ball. The gorgeous header redirected the ball into the upper-left hand corner of the goal from 15 yards out.
"Whelchel is a really solid player, and she can cause a lot of problems for the other team," Hempen said.
The Blue Devils got onto the scoreboard again less than a minute into the second stanza. Freshman Sherrill Kester evaded three defenders down the left side and headed straight for goal, drawing the Golden Panther goalie's attention. But she laid the ball off right in front and Mandy Manzanares pounded it into the empty net for a 4-0 cushion. Andi Melde finished off the scoring for Duke when she stole the ball from a Central Florida defender and beat the goalie with a low blast to the left corner.
If Sunday's game was one-sided, then Friday's was even more so. The Blue Devils outshot Florida International 31-3 en route to a 4-0 victory. Kester tallied two goals in the contest. Whelchel had the first goal of the game and Melde finished off the scoring early in the second half.
For the weekend, Hempen was unsure of how much the Blue Devils improved because of the quality of competition. One thing was certain, however. He is becoming more comfortable with the younger players on the team.
At times on Sunday, Duke had five freshmen on the field-Kester, Feeney, Kim Cahill, Kim Daws and Liz Speights. Two others, Brooke Leahy and Kim Harshorne, also saw action. Getting them into a comfort zone on the field will be important for the Blue Devils because No. 2 Notre Dame and No. 8 William and Mary come calling next weekend in the Duke Women's Soccer Classic.
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