Seventeen times this fall, Ali Curtis found the back of the net for the men's soccer team, scoring as many goals as anyone in school history. Saturday, his offensive prowess earned him a place alongside the biggest stars ever to wear a Duke uniform when the junior forward became the fifth Blue Devil to win the Hermann Trophy as the top player in college soccer.
Curtis captured 114 points in the voting to edge Nick Garcia of national champion Indiana and become Duke's first Hermann Trophy honoree since 1986.
"I can't even describe what I'm feeling right now," Curtis said after receiving the award. "I'm in shock, I'm surprised and I'm excited. I don't think words can describe how I feel right now."
The announcement came three days after the Milan, Mich., native fell one point shy of taking home the Missouri Athletic Club player of the year award, despite receiving more first-place votes than UCLA's Sasha Victorine.
After coming up short in that voting, Curtis wasn't too optimistic about capturing the Hermann Trophy either.
"I really didn't think I was going to win the award," Curtis said. "I thought I had a decent chance because I came in second in the voting and had a lot of first-place votes for [the Missouri Athletic Club player of the year award]. But I didn't think I was going to win. I told my parents,
Curtis' 17 goals and 40 points in 20 games led the ACC and earned him conference player of the year honors. His performance helped lead the Blue Devils to an undefeated regular season, their first-ever ACC tournament title and the top seed in the NCAA tourney.
Curtis' award-winning season came a year after an injury-riddled sophomore campaign. A sprained MCL sidelined him for seven games in 1998, and the forward finished with nine goals after scoring 12 as a freshman.
"Looking back on the season, I'm just happy I had a healthy season," he said. "Last year, I was really pushing to have a really good season and things just didn't go my way. I was injured and I learned a lot from an up-and-down sophomore year. I think this year I was a lot more mature both on and off the field.
"I was also fortunate because we had a great team. We had a lot of new faces on our team and they were very talented."
Curtis was unquestionably the main reason for Duke's success as he tallied six game-winning goals on the year, notching the deciding score in four straight contests midway through the season.
The biggest came Oct. 2 at No. 20 North Carolina, when the two archrivals battled for more than 83 minutes in a scoreless tie. With regulation winding down, Curtis collided with the Tar Heel keeper while chasing after a loose ball in front of the net. Lying on the ground, the forward managed to knock the ball into the goal for a 1-0 Duke victory.
After a dominant campaign and the individual hardware to back it up, Curtis maintains that he will not forgo his final year of eligibility and join the professional ranks.
"I've thought about leaving school early and playing professional soccer, but I think right now the educated decision for me to make is to stay in school," Curtis said. "The two main objectives I had when I came to Duke were to get a degree and to do well in soccer.... I'm going to stay in school and graduate.
"But you never know what can happen in the athletic world. If something pops up where the educated decision would be for me to leave early, then that's something I'd have to consider. But as far as I'm concerned right now, I'm going to stay in school."
With another season in Durham likely remaining, Curtis could add more school records to his already impressive resume, which includes Soccer News honorable mention All-American honors his first two years. The junior has 38 goals for his career and needs 14 more to become the most prolific scorer in Duke history.
Brody Greenwald and Neal Morgan contributed to this story.
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