In its final exhibition game before the beginning of regular season play, the Duke women's soccer team defeated UNC-Wilmington 1-0. Fullback Margaret Lea scored Duke's lone goal of the game from close range, blasting a loose ball past Seahawk goalkeeper Meghan Fitzsimmons.
The sophomore's score resulted from the hard work of several of her teammates.
After deftly fending off multiple defenders, forward Gwendolyn Oxenham--who scored in Duke's first exhibition contest Wednesday against Richmond--crossed the ball in from the sideline. With several Blue Devils battling in the box, the ball eventually made its way to Lea.
"The ball snuck through and in a last ditch effort I hit it past the keeper," Lea said. "I shot it near post to throw her off."
Despite the narrow margin of victory, the Blue Devils completely controlled Saturday's contest, possessing the ball for great lengths of time and outshooting the Seahawks 10-0. With the game still scoreless at the half, however, the Blue Devils needed to focus better in order to break through on the scoreboard.
"At halftime our coach had talked about how we needed to bring the intensity level up a little bit," Lea said. "So we went out and tried to step up."
Following last week's 2-0 victory over the Richmond Spiders, Duke has yet to allow a goal in exhibition play.
"Our main focus during the pre-season was defense," Lea said. "We still have a lot of work to do, but I think we've showed well in our first two games."
Unfortunately, Duke suffered a severe setback on defense before Saturday's win, as an MRI revealed that senior midfielder Kasey Truman--who was out most of last season due to injury--had torn her medial collateral ligament in Wednesday's contest against Richmond.
"She was a central back for us, and she was really playing well in the preseason," Church said. "We suffered a big blow."
Although Duke managed only three goals in exhibition play against their often times outclassed opponents, Church was pleased with his team's overall offensive performance.
"In both of our scrimmages we created several opportunities," Church said. "The goals will come. We scored three of them, and had plenty of other [chances]. We're going to work really hard between now and Friday night on the offensive side of the ball.
"The games really haven't been as close as the scores," he continued. "That being said, a lot of our goals going in to the two exhibition matches were defensive."
Duke will not begin its regular season until this Friday against Davidson. Though last week's two victories were only in exhibitions, the team approached their opening tune-ups with vigor.
"One of the first team goals was to win every game," Lea said. "Each game is like a rung in the ladder. We're looking at every game as helping us to reach our ultimate goals."
Church echoed Lea's comments.
"The main thing is to play hard and give yourself a chance to win," he said. "And for the most part we have."
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