Duke plays host to pair of soccer tourneys

MEN'S SOCCER

 

 by Gabe Githens  
 

The Chronicle

The men's soccer team's preseason consisted of a cakewalk victory over ECU and a squeaker past No. 10 Connecticut. Now the players start playing for keeps. This weekend the Blue Devils host Liberty and Georgia Southern in the Wolfpack Classic hosted at Duke's Koskinen Stadium. 

 

"I don't know much about either team," head coach John Rennie said. "I'm not sure how we'll match up. Liberty is a giant killer. Both of these teams have some talent." 

 

 

"Jordan didn't play in both preseason games," Rennie said. "He's been recovering from an injury. He'll be ready this weekend." 

 

Cila's injury allowed other players to get into the scoring mix. Nigi Adogwa beat the ECU keeper three times for a hat trick in the preseason opener. Since Liberty is a team that barely outshot its opponents last season, the midfield combination of sophomores Blake Camp and Danny Kramer should pose quite a problem for the Flames defense. 

 

Sunday's matchup with Georgia Southern should favor the Blue Devils as well. Led by forward Tony Moffat, the Bulldogs are picked to finish 6th in the preseason poll for the Southern conference. 

 

Both of this weekends scouting reports are fairly vague for Duke, but the real test lies in continuing to play as a team.  

 

"We're a very hard-working team," Rennie said. "We're strong physically and mentally right now. That counts for a lot. There are some young guys that have a chance to make this their team. We had a lot of seniors last year." 

 

The Blue Devils should be able to strike early in both matches and test out different combinations on the field as well as rest injured players such as Cila. 

 

WOMEN'S SOCCER

 

 by Matt Sullivan
 

The Chronicle

One yearning year and a smarting summer after not making the NCAA Tournament, the women's soccer team is ready to rumble-and ready to mess with Texas.

The No. 24 Blue Devils officially open what could be their most promising season in years tonight when they host Campbell at 7 p.m. But the first marquee match-up of the Duke athletics season and one of the most high-profile of the fall for women's soccer comes Sunday night, when the No. 4 Texas Longhorns huff into town.

"If we win this game, that could be a springboard into a really great season," head coach Robbie Church said, "and, more than anything else, it will just show us where we are."

Duke got a sizable litmus test last season, when the Blue Devils also took on the Longhorns in their second game of the year. Church's squad was more the matador then, with Texas jumping out to a 2-0 lead before a late goal from then-freshman Carolyn Riggs.

But this year Duke brings back Riggs and a host of other talent, including junior score-a-holic Casey McCluskey, who had three goals in two pre-season games and whose hard-charging style should cause trouble for the young Longhorn defense.

"We played very well in Austin last year," Church said. "We just worked really hard, and [now] we've got to do the same thing. We've got to make sure we go out there, and we've got to attack them. We can't sit back and let them attack and react to what they do. And we have to do that for a full 90 minutes. If not, then they are capable of punishing us."

Indeed, the Texas forwards bring plenty of heat, with the two-horned threat of Kelly Wilson and Kelly McDonald. Wilson, last year's Big 12 Player of the Year after racking up eight goals, is one of the top returning players in the country. And combined with McDonald, who notched a team-record 14 goals last season, Riggs and McCluskey might meet their match.

Church said he would tweak his system to the Longhorns' formations and make in-game adjustments but mostly stressed having a sense of energy and urgency that wasn't all there last time around.

Scoring shouldn't be much of a problem, as both teams already have 6-0 preseason wins behind them-though Duke's Thora Helgadottir and Texas' Alex Gagarin are experienced goalies and some of the best in their respective conferences at their position.

Still, an old Texas style shoot-out awaits a Duke team that, after an ACC Tournament loss to Clemson that shattered hopes of an NCAA berth, has nowhere to look but up.

"They're supposed to be where we want to go," Church said, "and that's the top five and being able to play with the elite college teams in the nation.