All season long, the women's soccer team has had to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. This weekend it once again proved its mettle, defeating Pennsylvania, 3-1, and Alabama, 3-0, at the Duke adidas Women's Soccer Classic-all without its leading scorer.
"This team is so thin. We've had to move some people around, and they've responded to everything we've done so far," Duke coach Bill Hempen said. "They're just finding ways to win-that's encouraging.... It's incredible the way these kids have responded to extreme adversity, and I'm very proud of them."
On Friday, the No. 8 Blue Devils (9-2) started their conquest of the Quakers (6-3) with a bang, even without the help of their leading scorer, sophomore forward Emily Feeney, who is out indefinitely with a strained medial collateral ligament. Just 6:09 into the game, freshman forward Kasey Truman blasted a long bomb into the lower right corner of the net, assisted by freshman midfielder Susan Kraeger and senior forward Samantha Baggett. Senior forward Andi Melde's header off a feed from sophomore midfielder Sherrill Kester put Duke two goals ahead just 10 minutes later.
Penn pulled within one goal 31:33 into the first half, when Jacky Flood redirected Emily Goodman's penalty kick into the net. But 12 minutes into the second stanza, Melde's breakaway lured Quaker goalkeeper Anne Klutemeier out of the box, setting up Baggett to boot the ball into the open goal.
The Blue Devils believe this weekend's tournament gave their attack a chance to try new tactics. In fact, their aggressive offense tallied more than twice as many shots as their opponents', garnering 14 shots to Penn's six and 21 to Alabama's 10.
Feeney's injury, however, pushes an already depleted Blue Devil squad to the brink of a crisis.
"We're OK right now, but we're about one more injury from not being so OK," Hempen said.
Despite Feeney's absence, Duke managed to put away the Crimson Tide (8-4) without much difficulty. After 20 scoreless minutes, Kraeger's corner kick arched directly into the upper left corner of the net. The Blue Devils tallied an insurance goal, as Baggett headed in Melde's corner kick at 30:09. Junior midfielder Kristy Whelchel put the icing on the cake at 37:02, rocketing a cross from Melde into the back of the net.
The second half saw Alabama midfielder Leah Formby and Blue Devil sophomore forward Kim Cahill pick up yellow cards, as the game became more physical. Duke finished with nine fouls to the Crimson Tide's eight.
"They're definitely a physical team, but I think we outsmarted them," Melde said. "We played as good as we needed to in order to save ourselves."
The Blue Devils who remain healthy will need to save themselves for the rest of the season. Whelchel, Baggett, Melde and senior defender Lauren Cyran played almost the entire 90 minutes of both games. Short on depth, Duke feels it is inching closer to its goal of having everyone 90 minutes fit.
"With the injuries that we have, we're playing with 13 or 14 deep, which is tough," Melde said. "Every game we've played, every person's basically played 90 minutes. We're getting up there, but we've got a ways to go."
This weekend's tournament, as well as a tournament hosted by Notre Dame two weeks ago, gave the Blue Devils a chance to watch defending national champion and Atlantic Coast Conference rival North Carolina play. While this experience will help Duke understand the top-ranked Tar Heels' tactics, the Blue Devils think that improving their own play to match UNC's level is far more important.
"It's not an issue of preparing for them; it's trying to get better from our standpoint," Hempen said. "If we can get as good as we can, than we can compete with anyone."
Notes: North Carolina, which defeated Alabama, 6-0, and Penn, 9-0, earned the tournament title by virtue of goal differential.... Melde received tournament most valuable player honors for Duke, and Baggett and Whelchel were also named to the all-tournament team.
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