They accomplished so much-the undefeated regular season, the first-ever ACC championship, the top seed in the NCAA tournament-but right now it's hard for the Blue Devils to focus on anything but their one failure: the sole loss that ended their year long before they wanted it to.
"You understand you had a remarkable year-we probably overachieved during the regular season; it was an incredible run," coach John Rennie said. "But that's not what you're thinking about now. It's too soon. We'd gotten our goals higher and higher as the season went on.
"But at some point, [this fall's successes] will sink in."
When No. 19 Santa Clara jumped out to a 3-0 lead late in Sunday's NCAA second-round match, suddenly the zero losses in Duke's first 19 games meant nothing. What became a 4-2 defeat concluded a season of positives on a decidedly negative note.
"We've worked so hard to get to this point," senior Troy Garner said after the game at Koskinen Stadium. "To see us not play our best game was very disappointing. It's worse to go out like that. Even if we had played our best game and lost, I'd feel a lot better."
The Blue Devils nearly saw their year come to a close a week earlier, as 11th-ranked and undefeated UMBC built a 3-1 lead early in the second half. Duke rallied to stave off a second straight first-round upset, scoring two unanswered goals in regulation and one in sudden-death overtime. Once again, the Blue Devils didn't seem to know how to lose.
The previous Sunday, Duke had slugged it out with Virginia for more than 128 minutes in the ACC tournament final. In the third overtime, Stephen Pate's shot found the upper left hand corner of the net and the Blue Devils had their first title in 13 tries.
"To do what we did in the ACC is incredibly difficult," Rennie said. "But it built up an awful lot of expectations and pressure with the No. 1 seeding."
Expectations were nowhere near as high when Duke kicked off the season three months ago. The Blue Devils only lost four players from their '98 squad, but that group included their starting goalie and the anchors of their defense and midfield.
Although Duke survived several early-season tests without a loss, it didn't look like a team that would put together one of the best records in school history. In mid-September's adidas Soccer Classic, the Blue Devils tied Rutgers 2-2 after giving up a goal in the final two minutes of regulation, then topped No. 18 UConn 2-1 on a penalty kick in overtime by Ali Curtis.
The following weekend, Duke traveled to South Carolina and came back with a scoreless tie to a Clemson team desperate for an ACC win. But after a laugher over Wofford, the Blue Devils let the college soccer world know they'd be a force to be reckoned with.
Maryland came to town Sept. 25 sitting atop the national rankings and riding a six-game winning streak over Duke. The Terrapins were coming off a Final Four appearance and only one loss, to defending national champion Indiana, blemished their record.
But they'd soon have twice that many defeats, as the Blue Devils earned a dominating 3-0 victory, their first in the series since 1993.
"We hadn't beaten them in a while and they were ranked No. 1," Rennie said. "It was a huge test after tying Clemson. That and the Virginia game during the regular season really set the tone for what was a remarkable run."
Duke finished off the always-tough ACC slate without a loss, capping it all off Nov. 5 against N.C. State. The Blue Devils erased a 2-0 deficit and topped the Wolfpack 3-2 for its first undefeated regular season in 17 years.
Duke did it with a deep, balanced attack, as 18 different players started at least one game. Haywood took over in goal for the departed Atli Knutsson and posted a .8 goals against average while earning first-team All-ACC honors.
Curtis bounced back from an injury-plagued sophomore campaign to score 17 goals and join Haywood on the first team, while Garner complemented him with seven goals of his own during a strong final season.
But it was hard for Rennie to single out any one player's performance.
"Just about everyone on the team had a great year...." he said. "You don't accomplish what we did without all the players achieving up to their potential."
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