The women's soccer team hadn't swept a weekend set all month, and the Blue Devils weren't about to close out Chapter One of their season without doing it.
So No. 11 Duke put the noose around lowly in-state rivals Davidson and UNC-Greensboro, scoring nine goals and not allowing one to finish off its non-conference slate in style before jumping into ACC play this week.
"I think we've done a good job of preparing for [the ACC] all year," head coach Robbie Church said. "I think we've gone and scheduled a number of games that we felt were ACC-type games, but not scheduling too many of those games that are taxing every time you step out on the field."
The Blue Devils (7-2-1) played the tax collectors this weekend, using days off from earlier in the week to plow through Davidson 7-0 Friday and then head down Route 40 to knock off Greensboro 2-0 yesterday.
Junior backup Kate Straka started in goal both games, but she got most of the day off against Davidson, as Duke outshot the Wildcats 33-3. Lauren Tippets and Kate Seibert led the onslaught with six and seven shots, respectively, against a Davidson team whose aggressive offense led to Duke's domination in the midfield.
Tippets and Seibert spread the love, though, as each of seven Blue Devils scored against three Wildcat goalies. Caroyln Ford assisted a Seibert goal for the third time this year, and Carolyn Riggs and Rebecca Moros formed a tag-team of their own in assisting each other on back-to-back goals to give Duke a 3-0 halftime lead.
Moros would leave soon thereafter with an ankle sprain, but her fellow freshmen picked up the slack, with Tippets and Sarah McCabe each putting in unassisted goals as the Blue Devils rolled on.
"They're used to playing in big games," Church said of the freshmen, who tallied four goals on the weekend. "So even from the first day on campus, they've stepped in and have played without fear and have not been intimidated. And they've benefited from having a lot of other good players around them too. We've been very, very happy with that class."
It was hard for the Blue Devils not to be pleased yesterday too, as they came away with their first Friday-Sunday sweep since upsetting Texas a month ago. The competition may not have been as formidable this time around, but UNC-Greensboro at least provided more of a test than Davidson.
Carmen Bognanno knocked in her first score of the season less than two minutes into the game on a feed from Gwendolyn Oxenham, who had four points on the weekend. But the Spartans played a 3-6-1 formation, overplaying on Duke midfielders Darby Kroyer and Casey McCluskey and giving the Blue Devils fewer solid scoring opportunities.
That couldn't stop Tippets, who scored her second goal of the weekend to tie Riggs for the team lead with six overall off a feed from Shelly Marshall as the weekend--and Chapter One--were coming to a racing close.
Duke will go full speed ahead, then, into playing a stacked ACC, beginning with No. 1 North Carolina Wednesday and Wake Forest, which had a great weekend itself in knocking off No. 5 Pepperdine and No. 12 California, next Saturday.
Church said he won't know if his team is prepared for intense conference play until it gets there, but he knows that the next chapter won't be as easy as this weekend was.
"You just look at the schedule, and you're not quite sure when the wins are going to come."
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