The women's soccer team may have entered the ACC season on a roll, but it left the first battles limping.
After jumping off to a surprising 5-1 start, the Blue Devils' defense disappeared this weekend at Koskinen Stadium as Duke (5-3, 0-2 in the ACC) gave up eight goals in dropping two 4-3 contests to No. 25 Virginia and unranked Maryland.
For a Duke team that failed to win a conference game last season but had started this year with a bang, the losses are especially painful.
"It's extremely frustrating," senior defender Kim Cahill said. "There's no such thing as a respectful loss. Losing 4-3 or losing in overtime, it's a loss. We need to come out here and win."
The defense got off to a rough start Saturday morning against Virginia when the Cavs scored three easy goals in a span of less than 20 minutes. The Cavaliers' first came 15 minutes into the game when Angela Hucles somehow broke free of several Duke defenders and beat Duke keeper Isis Dallis one-on-one.
Virginia would score again three minutes later to take a 2-0 advantage, and with just under 12 minutes left in the half, Dallis contested a crossing pass, but left herself in bad position to stop Darci Borski's bullet that found the back of the net for a 3-0 Cavalier lead.
"We literally
Down 3-1 at the half, Duke rallied in the second, creating several great offensive opportunities. In the half's first nine minutes, Duke failed to convert five good scoring chances. Sherrill Kester, Susan Kraeger and Cahill each missed shots while Jenna Turner turned the ball over when she led herself too much on a one-on-one with the goalie.
Duke still managed to pull within one, but after the game, the Blue Devils were reflecting on the ones that got away.
"We had a bunch of chances early and we didn't convert them," Hempen said. "They buried them, we didn't. We had incredible opportunities. Those are gimmies on the golf course and we didn't put them in."
The greens didn't play any easier yesterday as things only got worse defensively against the Terps. With the score knotted at one, Cahill meant to kick the ball to Dallis, but the ball was hit too short. Dallis charged after it, but kicked it directly into Maryland's Sara Gustafson. The ball bounced hard off the sophomore forward, who sprinted after it and tapped the ball in for an easy goal and a 2-1 lead.
Duke's Turner tied the game,
Before the overtime period began, Hempen took out Dallis in favor of freshman keeper Tara Walker. Walker saw her first action Saturday afternoon, but Hempen's move was surprising considering Dallis had played every minute until Saturday's game.
Faced with the first difficult test of her career, Walker surrendered the game-winning goal just 7:14 into the sudden death period. Duke got the first shot of overtime when Brain missed wide, but Maryland's Valerie Lawrence and Julie Nelson made two nice passes that drew Walker out of the box.
Gustafson got the ball and was able to float a shot over a back-peddling Walker that found the net, sending the Terps into a frenzied celebration.
"We just needed a presence on all that stuff that was bouncing around the box," Hempen said, "and I was hoping that Tara would provide that for us. The problem all day long was that [the goaltender] got a touch on the ball, but we didn't get the second touch. We didn't execute well enough on defense."
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