Maybe it's the scarves given away as a promotion Wednesday night. Maybe it's the thrill of playing on Senior Night. Maybe it's a new offensive formation. Maybe it's just the cold weather. Whatever it is, Duke is starting to heat up.
After turning a disappointing season around with a tie against North Carolina Sunday, the women's soccer team (7-8-2) continued its desperate surge towards earning an NCAA tournament berth with a 6-0 drubbing of High Point (3-9-3) at a frigid Koskinen Stadium last night.
"I think we're playing our best soccer, I really do," head coach Robbie Church said. "It's nice to see it in back-to-back games. Even though we obviously had more talent than High Point--and I thought High Point worked hard--I felt that our level didn't drop."
Even though the temperature dropped, the Blue Devils persevered, cashing in on two early goals and never looking back while pouncing on the Panthers with a 25-3 shot advantage and control of the ball throughout, thanks to adding an extra forward up front.
Less than a minute into the last game the six Duke seniors would play at Koskinen, captain Liz Wagner had set the tone with the first score of the night and the only one the Blue Devils would need.
Then at the 4:20 mark, senior Sarah Zielske took advantage of her increased playing time in streaking down the right sideline to find Casey McCluskey, who booted home her ninth goal of the season from 12 yards out to take the team lead.
But she would only hold that lead for another 21 minutes, as fellow underclassman standout Carolyn Riggs rose over a wall of High Point defenders to delicately head in one of Duke's 10 corner kicks, tying McCluskey and putting the Blue Devils ahead by three.
With the Duke midfield holding strong and the slow Panther defenders failing to keep the Blue Devils out of the box, Church was able to give his seniors plenty of playing time while some of his younger stars got a chance to warm up-literally and figuratively-for the end of the season.
Senior Brigid Bowdell notched only her second goal of the season with a left juke and soft right tap after a streaking set-up from McCluskey. Freshman Shelly Marshall pounded home Duke's final goal on a night for the seniors, but one where the team's younger talent was clear.
"They've really supported us all year," Bowdell said of the underclassmen. "This game, they really wanted to work for [the seniors] more, which I really appreciated."
The entire team, though, young and old, will have to work for wins against No. 16 Wake Forest Saturday and their first round opponent next week in the ACC tournament just to have a chance to qualify for the NCAA's.
"It's basically all or nothing at this point," said Wagner, sentimental and simmering on an emotional night for her class, but just a warm-up for her team.
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