Coming off a win Wednesday night that followed three disappointing losses, the men's soccer team is ready for another victory against N.C. State Sunday at 1 p.m. The Blue Devils (5-5, 1-1 in the ACC) beat the Wolfpack 7-0 last season, but believe this year's team has improved even though their records of 2-8 overall and 0-3 in the ACC may not show it.
"NC State is a much stronger team this year" Duke coach John Rennie said. "They're still losing, but they're losing 2-1-that kind of thing."
Junior Donald McIntosh, who Rennie believes has been very strong in the midfield for Duke, said of the Wolfpack after seeing them play a few times this year, "they work really hard.... They don't stop."
N.C. State won their game at Elon Wednesday night, recording their first shutout of the season by a score of 4-0. The Wolfpack began the scoring in the 11th minute of the game and outshot Elon 17-12. Regardless of last year's scores and records and the recent victories for both teams, the match between Duke and State is an ACC match, and everyone is out for a win.
This is a "conference kind of war... nothing less" Rennie said after noting that in last year's game, Duke was only up 1-0 at halftime.
The players all agree that a win is greatly needed at this point, especially after the rough weekend at Rutgers and St. John's, where both games ended in overtime losses. While the losses were disappointing, both the players and Rennie agreed that the Blue Devils played well, grew as a team and just have to deal with the unfortunate results.
The win Wednesday against Mercer helped to restore the team's confidence. McIntosh and captain Kevin Sakuda, who both said scoring had been a slight problem for the Blue Devils, believed that the team had some good goals and scoring opportunities against Mercer.
"It's really important for us to get on a roll here," Sakuda said after Wednesday night's game.
Fellow senior Demetrio Sanchez agreed, commenting, "It's like we have to win now." Sanchez and Sakuda both believe that after this weekend, the team has come together and is playing well.
Sakuda also said the team's chemistry was great at this point, but the team needs to keep on scoring and stay focused through the entire game.
The Blue Devils graduated five seniors and has had to deal with many injuries this season. Freshman Victor Victorsson, the Iceland native who has been unable to play due to a knee injury, did see his first playing time in the Mercer game.
Rennie also noted that while his team is quite new and inexperienced, they are a "pretty well balanced team" and "playing time together is what we need."
"We're also looking forward to playing some home games," Rennie said.
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