The peaks and valleys of the women's soccer team's season were somewhat reminiscent of a classic Clint Eastwood film entitled, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."
There were certainly periods of high excitement, but there were also times of high desperation.
"We definitely had a fun season," junior Kasey Truman said. "It was a roller coaster with ups and downs, though. We won big games and lost some we should never have come close to losing.
"But it was satisfying in a way, especially getting in the [NCAA] tournament and earning some of that respect back."
Behind the foot of senior Sherrill Kester, the Duke season got off to a tremendous start. Just 10 minutes into the Blue Devils' battle with then-No. 4 Connecticut, Kester found the back of the net for the first goal en route to a 2-0 win over the Huskies.
A mere two games later, Duke found itself in another tussle with a highly ranked opponent, No. 6 Penn State. Once again, Kester provided the spark, as she netted the game-winner 12 minutes into the second half for the 2-1 win.
In both of these contests, the Duke defense was superb. It held UConn scoreless for the entire 90 minutes of play and held off the Nittany Lion attack for the final 33 minutes after taking the lead.
"In the beginning, I knew that if we could beat these teams, then we could beat anybody," Kester said. "We just had some things go wrong for us, but we played much better again at the end of the season."
After these early successes, though, things began to slide downhill a bit for Duke. The defense, which had been so steady in the early going, began to leak.
Virginia and Maryland traveled to Durham for a pair of weekend games, and both left with 4-3 victories. These were the first two losses of what would be a long ACC season.
"The ACC is definitely the best conference around," Truman said. "We could have won every single conference game. But that's the thing about the ACC-any team can win at any time."
After falling in overtime to N.C. State 2-1, Duke was in dire need of a conference win.
Things looked bleak as No. 13 Wake Forest came to town Oct. 15. But with the odds against them, the Blue Devils played one of their best games of the season.
"When we played Wake Forest at home, that was definitely one of our biggest wins of the season," Truman said. "It was great getting that ACC win we desperately needed and also having a huge win at home, which we had not done in a while.
"It was one of the most intense games I've ever played in, and it was very emotional."
After Wake tied the score at 2-2 with just over five minutes left in the game, it appeared the Duke might suffer another conference loss. But freshman Carly Fuller put those fears to rest quickly, netting the game winner just 30 seconds into overtime.
Three nights later, Duke took the field against perennial power North Carolina. The Blue Devils opened a 2-0 lead and appeared poised to shock the Tar Heels, but it was not meant to be. Carolina scored three unanswered second-half goals to earn the 3-2 victory.
The following road trip to play Clemson and Florida State was one of the defining moments of the season for many of the players. The team had used up all its flight miles earlier in the season and was forced to take a bus trip for the entire weekend.
"That was a weekend in the middle of the season where I think things could have turned for the worse, but the road trip was a real girl-team bonding experience," Truman said. "It really brought us together to be on the bus for so long."
Despite falling to Maryland in the first round of the ACC tournament, the Blue Devils were given a second chance by receiving an invitation to the NCAA tourney.
Things looked good at the start, as Duke knocked off Elon in the opening round. William & Mary was a different story, though. The Indians controlled the entire match, earning a 3-0 win and ending the season for the Blue Devils.
"I think next year we can look back at this season and be happy we made the tournament," said junior Susan Kraeger. "But [we] know that now we need to go farther than we did this year."
While Duke was disappointed with its exit from the tournament, things appear to be headed in the right direction. The invitation alone was quite a change from the struggles of the previous season.
"To an extent this is very satisfying, to see the work did pay off for us," Truman said. "As a competitor, though, I wanted more. We did a lot better this year and got a lot closer, but I'm still not completely satisfied.
"As far as a transition, we did so much better as a team. The team unity was incredible.... We surprised a lot of people, but I think we kind of let down ourselves because we knew we could do much better."
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