Duke needs to rediscover its scoring touch.
Despite outshooting Vanderbilt 16-7 Saturday night, the women's soccer team lost to the visiting Commodores 2-0. The loss was bitterly disappointing for the Blue Devils, who before their final home game of the regular season honored the team's six seniors.
"Soccer is a very humbling game," a clearly disappointed coach Bill Hempen said. "It's terribly frustrating sometimes. Right now we're humbled and frustrated."
Early on, it appeared as though Duke might ride the wave of momentum from Senior Night to victory, as senior co-captain Alexis Highsmith helped produce a couple of scoring chances for the Blue Devils.
But Vanderbilt quickly squelched any ideas Duke had of taking an early lead, as sophomore Kat Carroll scored on Vanderbilt's first shot, only four minutes into the game.
After receiving a nice back pass from teammate Laura Hershenow, who drew two Duke defenders before dropping the ball back, a wide open Carroll blasted a perfectly placed 30-yard shot over Duke goalkeeper Isis Dallis into the upper-left hand corner of the net.
The Blue Devils' Sarah Pickens nearly scored eight minutes later off a terrific individual effort, dribbling past all of Vanderbilt's defenders and shooting from inside of 10 yards. However, Commodore goalkeeper Stacee Sproul charged off her line to make an excellent sliding save, deflecting Pickens' strike over the end line.
Although Sproul made six more saves, she did not face another shot as threatening as that one the rest of the game. Instead, Sproul watched her defense absolutely shut down a Duke squad that couldn't finish any scoring opportunities.
Despite a plethora of chances, including a vast array of crosses that went into or sailed through the 18-yard box without connecting with another Blue Devil, Duke only forced Sproul to make one other difficult save the entire night.
That opportunity came in the game's 74th minute when Duke substitute Brigid Bowdell battled her way through two defenders, only to have a well-positioned Sproul block her low-angle shot from 12 yards out.
Clearly puzzled, Hempen searched for answers to his team's dismal offensive performance.
"We couldn't connect that last pass to be more dangerous," he said. "We'd keep it, we'd keep it and then we'd turn it over in the middle of the field, as opposed to up front. We were just [unable to make] that killer pass."
Perhaps as a result of their inability to score, the Blue Devils' defense began to falter late in the game. Vanderbilt scored its second goal after forward Emily Wilpers took advantage of a Duke turnover at the top of the 18-yard box.
The Commodore freshman dribbled in behind Duke's defense, and beat Dallis for a game-clinching goal in the 89th minute.
"I think sometimes the turnovers take us by surprise," Duke defender Katie Heaps said. "We play great games, we outshoot every team we play. We're just not getting any goals. We control every game we play, just nothing's happening."
In contrast, the Commodores played one of their better games of the season, outhustling the Blue Devils and capitalizing off Duke's mistakes.
"We were very pumped," said Vanderbilt forward Jen Talavera, who assisted on Carroll's goal in the first half. "I played off my teammates-we pressured so hard [and] we just worked for each other."
The Blue Devils clearly need to rebound quickly from Saturday's disappointing loss. Duke hosts the ACC tournament, which begins Thursday.
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