They're back.
Since its Final Four appearance in 1995, the men's soccer team has spent considerable time working its way back into the NCAA Tournament. This weekend, Duke will once again take the field in tournament play.
"This is the one we've been anticipating," coach John Rennie said. "This is the tournament that we've all been waiting for. We're just delighted to be there."
And this may be the time that the Blue Devils (18-3) put any bitterness from last year's tournament snub to rest.
"You have [the snub] in the back of your mind a little bit as a motivating factor," Rennie said. "But at this point the playoffs are motivating factor enough."
Now the Blue Devils just have to advance through those playoffs. And with Jacksonville (18-4) as their first-round opponent at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Duke Soccer Stadium, they aren't taking anything for granted.
The Dolphins' two Yugoslavian forwards, Nesa Stefanovic and Bole Acimovic, have scored 25 and 22 goals, respectively, this season. As a whole, the team averages over three goals a game.
"The word we've gotten is don't take them lightly," Rennie said. "They score an awful lot of goals."
In comparison, All-American Jay Heaps leads Duke with 12 goals and the team averages 2.3 goals per game. But the Blue Devils also have 12 shutouts under their belt.
In addition, Jacksonville has faced a far lower level of competition. As last week's ACC Tournament showed, Duke has been competing against the best in the country all season. Three other ACC teams-Maryland, Clemson and Virginia-also received tournament bids.
The ACC Tournament was invaluable in providing many Blue Devils with postseason experience. Their three seniors, Heaps, Eric Otto and Evan Whitfield, are the only ones who have played in the NCAA Tournament. And the underclassmen had limited experience in the conference tournament-the team had only won one ACC Tournament game in the previous two years.
But after the Blue Devils played three tough conference games in four days at the ACC Tournament, they feel they're ready to tackle the NCAAs.
"It was a very hard tournament process," Rennie said. "We learned a lot from going through it all."
The NCAA Tournament schedule will not be nearly as concentrated. Until the Final Four, the teams only play one game a week. If the Blue Devils get past the offensive-minded Dolphins, they will most likely tackle Maryland in the second round.
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