With a 2-5 record and a seventh-place ranking in the ACC, it does not appear that the Duke women's soccer team can easily win the upcoming ACC tournament at Wake Forest. But as senior captain Sarah Pickens points out that the Blue Devils' record comes nowhere close to being a true showing of their talent.
The Blue Devils may be 2-5 in the ACC, but three of those losses--to Virginia, Florida State and Clemson--came in overtime. After a low point at 0-5 in the ACC, Duke has finished its season with three wins to get to an even 8-8 record and is confident in its chances.
"I think we have a huge chance. We've battled every team in the ACC," Pickens said. "I mean, the record shows it poorly; we've lost three games in overtime."
The Oct. 20 match against Virginia during regular season ended 2-1 when Cavalier freshman sensation Lindsay Gusick scored 10 minutes into overtime. Gusick has 13 goals this season, only the fourth player in Virginia history to get to that number in one season.
Virginia enters the ACC tournament with a 2-0 win over Wake Forest, giving it the second seed in the ACC. The recent victory was also the 50th win for Lindsay and the other Cavalier seniors.
Despite Virginia's high rank and strong offense, Duke coach Robbie Church firmly believes his team can bring home a win not only against Virginia, but for the entire tournament. Duke did beat Virginia in the ACC tournament last year, though Virginia has won the last three regular season meetings between the two rivals.
"We're going to win the tournament. We are playing well enough that we can win this tournament," Church said. "We're a very dangerous team, a very confident team right now."
Junior Rebecca Smith agrees with Church in the confidence of the team, and knows the energy will be high going into Thursday's match.
"I expect us to come out more fired up than we've been all season," Smith said. "There's more on the line. It's tournament time."
If Duke does beat UVa Thursday, the next game would be Friday afternoon against the winner of No. 6 Florida State and No. 3 Maryland. On the other side of the bracket, the main competition is No. 1 North Carolina, a team that Duke played evenly until a late spurt that gave UNC a 3-1 victory in the regular season.
Rather than focus on the rest of the tournament, however, the Blue Devils are taking it one step at a time. The first priority on the list is to knock off Virginia tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 p.m.
With players like standout freshman Casey McCluskey, sophomore goalie Thora Helgadottir, senior Alison Sanders and recently recovered senior Kasey Truman in addition to Smith and Pickens, Duke has reason to be confident.
"I think we just need to come out and play our game, and we need to score early," Sanders said. "We're on the upward climb."
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