After a turbulent year, the men's soccer team's season was cut unexpectedly short when it did not receive an NCAA Tournament bid. The decision was a crushing blow to the Blue Devils.
"Obviously it's a disappointment," senior co-captain Brian Kelly said. "With these things, you just have to take it as it comes and deal with it. It's unfortunate that we didn't get a bid. We're a quality team, and we probably would have done well in the tournament."
As NCAA Tournament appearances are standard operating procedure for the Blue Devils-this will only be the fifth tournament they have not appeared in since 1980-not making the cut came as an unpleasant surprise.
"I never expected us to not make it," senior co-captain Mike Dunne said. "After last year, we all felt really good about our chances. In the last three years, we always got a bid. I thought if you play soccer for Duke, you get an NCAA bid. This is definitely a sobering experience."
One possible factor in Duke's failure to receive an NCAA berth is the intensity of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The ACC is generally considered to be one of the strongest conferences in NCAA men's soccer. In fact, all seven squads in the ACC combined to win approximately 75 percent of their matches against non-conference opponents.
Put all these competitive teams together and anything can happen. Upsets were not an uncommon occurrence. Due to these intra-conference battles, only Maryland and Virginia reached the big dance this year.
The Blue Devils believe that they did not get an NCAA tournament berth because of both bad luck and lackluster play during the middle of the season. Contests against Indiana and William & Mary were rained out. Both games would have given Duke an opportunity to garner crucial victories, but neither team would reschedule.
After a strong 6-0 start, the Blue Devils seemed to lose some of their magic, dropping matches to Marshall, North Carolina, South Carolina and the College of Charleston, all of which they feel they should have won. By the time Duke finally managed to pull itself together, the season was almost over.
"A couple of weeks ago, the team didn't have a lot of confidence," Duke coach John Rennie said. "We were still trying to find ourselves. By the second game at Charleston and the ACC tournament, we were becoming more confident. Our freshmen were starting to really stand out, but it was just too late."
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