Not so fast, my friend. Just when it seemed the women's soccer team had its back up against the wall, it came up huge when it counted most. The Blue Devils responded to the possibility of not getting an NCAA tournament berth with a victory Wednesday night for their first ACC win of the season over N.C. State. The win sets up the team for a big showdown Saturday night versus No. 21 Wake Forest in Koskinen Stadium at 7 p.m.
The Blue Devils (6-8, 1-5 in the ACC) needed just Carly Fuller's goal to finish off the Wolfpack (7-7, 0-5) after another perfect performance by sophomore goalkeeper Thora Helgadottir. Helgadottir turned away four shots en route to her second shutout of the season and put herself just one shutout away from moving into fifth place on Duke's all-time shutout list.
The 1-0 win keeps alive Duke's chance to squeeze into the NCAA Tournament, which recently decided to expand to a 64-team format. Most of the players feel two wins in the always competitive ACC would be enough to garner a berth, but that would first require the Blue Devils to go through a tough Demon Deacon team. With two games left on the schedule, Duke would have to win both to get to the critical even won-loss record, which the NCAA selection committee will most likely use as a filter.
"We have got to win the next two games and probably two in the tournament to get to .500," Church said. "If we get to .500, we will get a bid because of our strength of schedule. We are still alive, but we've got two tough games ahead of us."
The win was crucial in not only getting Duke off the snide of zero ACC wins, but also in letting the team potentially avoid playing top-seeded North Carolina in the first round of the ACC tournament. With the way the team has battled every other ACC team this season, the players feel they have a legitimate chance to meet their archrivals in the ACC championship game.
Wake Forest (8-5-1, 3-2) will be coming off three days of rest following its most recent match, a 2-1 win over regional rival Charlotte. The Demon Deacons first got on the board with a goal by senior forward Emily Taggart, who became Wake Forest's all-time leading scorer in school history with 29 goals in her career.
Duke will also have to contend with sophomore defender A.B. Robbins, who was recently named to the Soccer America Team of the Week with her two goals in the Deacons' win over No. 19 Florida State.
In last year's contest, the Blue Devils scored with less than two minutes remaining in the match to steal a 1-0 victory from the Demon Deacons. Then-sophomore Alison Sanders punched in the only goal of the game, while Thora Helgadottir picked up her second career shutout.
Should Duke win Saturday night, the Blue Devils would have the chance to finish as a .500 team, despite losing so many close games all season long. The deciding game would be Nov. 3, when Duke faces Vanderbilt, the former team of current Blue Devil coach Robbie Church. The match will mark Church's first return to Nashville, Tenn. since accepting the Duke job in July.
"These girls really want to be in the tournament, and they think they deserve it," said Church, who coached the Commodores to a 21-19-1 record during his two-year stint. "We may not be a top-20 team, but we are a top-64 team. It's definitely a goal we can accomplish."
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