Little by little, the women's soccer team is making its way home.
The 3-1 Blue Devils are starting to feel at home in the national rankings again, climbing to No. 11 after an upset of then-No. 5 Connecticut to mark Duke's first appearance in the polls since early 1998.
And there is finally light at the end of a brutal early-season schedule, one which takes Duke away from home for the first four games of 1999. After trips to St. Louis, Mo., and South Bend, Ind., a visit to Chapel Hill for the Nike Carolina Classic must feel almost like a home stand for the Blue Devils.
"We're doing a better job of dealing with [adversity] this year than we did last year," said coach Bill Hempen, who has won four of his last five games at the Carolina Classic.
The Blue Devils lost starting defender/midfielder Kasey Truman to an ankle injury against UConn and will not have her services today when they face No. 6 Penn State or Sunday against unranked Colorado.
"It's almost like [injuries to starters] are a part of our program now," Hempen joked, referring to an injury-plagued 1998 season. "It hurts not having Kasey Truman out there, but having 36 hours to prepare has helped us out.
"It's given us enough time to prepare a new defense for this weekend."
The Blue Devils would rather not have a new defense every two games, but they can draw some consolation from the debut of redshirt freshman Jamie Parker, who expects to make her first collegiate start today.
Parker missed the entire 1998 season with a broken collarbone and was not available for the Blue Devils' first four games of 1999. Hempen expects to plug Parker in at central defense, sandwiching her between marking defenders Kim Cahill and Rebecca Smith.
It's already the second major change in three weeks for the Blue Devils' back line, but Hempen said goalkeeper Isis Dallis has handled the adjustments well.
"It's not as traumatic to us as the injuries were a year ago," Hempen said. "Isis handles it as well as any college kid ever could. Every day at practice she works harder than I thought she could. Every day so far this year she has gone a little further.
"I remember she came to me once and said, 'I want to be the best.' She knows she's not the best yet, so she keeps working harder."
Dallis, a junior, is off to a quick start this fall, already posting two shutouts and a sterling goals-against average of 1.25. She has played all 360 minutes in the Blue Devils' net this season.
Her main concern this weekend will be Penn State striker Christie Welsh, a freshman from Long Island, N.Y., who made a splash by scoring a school-record four goals in her college debut.
"Every once in a while, maybe once in a soccer lifetime, you run across a kid who, every time she touches the ball, it goes in [the net]," Hempen said. "Right now, that's Welsh. So we have to be very aware of her this weekend."
Hempen said he's not worried about defensive lapses that led to a handful of breakaway opportunities in Sunday's 4-1 loss at Notre Dame.
"We've figured [the problem] out and actually played even with Notre Dame in the second half," Hempen said. "We just realized that we can't play a flat-back line right now, so we'll have one deep defender."
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