Chalk it up as a productive night for the men's soccer team.
Yesterday in Buies Creek, N.C., the seventh-ranked Blue Devils returned to the field for the first time in eight days and welcomed back junior tri-captain Robert Russell after a month-long absence. Best of all, they came away with a 3-0 win over Campbell at the Eakes Athletic Complex, the first time in eight contests they were able to beat the Camels (3-10) by more than two goals.
"We've been going there for 20 years, and I can't think of a better result," coach John Rennie said.
And he couldn't think of a better development than the return of his star midfielder. Duke (8-0-3, 2-0-2 in the ACC) went 4-0-1 over the five games that Russell missed with a knee injury during, but that doesn't make Rennie any less thankful to have him back in the center of the Blue Devil attack.
"Basically, he's our best player overall," the coach said. "It's amazing what we were able to do without him. He does a little bit of everything-win balls in the midfield, push the ball forward. He's just a very mature player."
There was a silver lining to Russell's absence, most notably the emergence of Ryan Furgurson as a solid contributor. The junior continued his strong play yesterday, taking a game-high five shots and scoring the first goal of the contest off a deflection in the 18th minute of play.
But the star of the night for the Blue Devils was senior tri-captain Troy Garner, who notched Duke's next two goals. The forward was taken down in front of the net less than a minute after Furgurson's tally and converted on the ensuing penalty kick to put the Blue Devils up 2-0.
He then finished off the scoring in the 28th minute of the second half. Kevin Sakuda launched a free kick into the penalty box from midfield and Scott Noble headed the ball down to Garner, who put it away for his fifth goal of the season.
After having two straight games postponed by rain, Duke got a valuable tuneup for Sunday's ACC showdown with No. 20 Virginia (8-5-1, 1-3-1).
"Our practice field is under water; we haven't been able to work and we are probably not as sharp as we would like to be," Rennie said Wednesday. "We need to play a game right now."
The Cavaliers, who have won six ACC regular-season titles in the '90s, find themselves in an unfamiliar-and uncomfortable-position in the conference standings. UVa has had five players leave school to turn pro since January 1998, and this year's young team stands next to last in the ACC.
"To be a top-20 team under those conditions is quite remarkable..." Rennie said. "[A drop-off] has got to happen when you lose those kind of players."
But it's exactly the Cavs' dire situation that worries Rennie.
"Virginia's going to treat this like World War III," he said. "They are in an absolute crisis by their standards. It's a total must-win in their minds, or else they could finish last in the ACC which would be unthinkable for them.
"They're going to fight for their lives and play with a lot of passion. We have to match that."
Adam Ganz contributed to this story.
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