With three games left in the regular season, the women's soccer team headed south to face surging Clemson Friday, buzzing with energy from last weekend's victory over Virginia. But No. 12 Duke (10-5-1, 3-3 in the ACC) was caught in a net of its own creation when it could not put any in the net, suffering its third shutout in six conference contests and falling, 1-0, to the Tigers (9-5-2, 3-3) at Riggs Field.
The Blue Devils were not for wanting for chances, as they outshot Clemson 12-10 and had seven corner kicks to the Tigers one.
They had balls sailing over the crossbar and corner kicks get past Clemson goalie Lauren Whitt only to have the ball knocked away, but almost was not enough for an erratic team faced with beginning the ACC tournament in just a week and a half.
"I don't think we can rest on the breaks not falling," head coach Robbie Church said. "We've got to be able to do some things better.
Corner kicks mean we're attacking really well, but we've got to be able to punish them on the corner kicks."
Clemson freshman scoring sensation Courtney Foster put in her ninth goal of the season in the eighth minute of play to give the Tigers the only goal they would need and set the tone early.
The scurrying, small and technical Blue Devils did not have much room to control the field, instead serving the ball skyward to a more direct Clemson squad, who Church said was "just making it uglier."
Duke had three shots in the last five minutes of the half--including a header by sophomore Kate Seibert that missed just high, but waited until the second stanza to really push, in vain, for a winner.
Seibert had three more shots in the closing fifteen minutes of the game, and freshman Darby Kroyer served in five corner kicks in the second half. Sophomore Carolyn Ford had a last-ditch effort with a long shot with three seconds left, but Ford said she didnt like the angle on the shot, and Duke came away with nothing to show for all that scurrying once more.
"We really need one player that you can count on, that can score every game or every other game," Church said. "We're always worried about [finishing]. It's a little bit more about our players taking more responsibility--personally--not just a possession mentality, an attacking responsibility."
The Blue Devils will re-start the attack after a passive weekend tonight when they host Gardner-Webb at 7:00 p.m. From there, it's Maryland Friday and then on to the ACC Tournament, where shutouts like these are abound and almost is never enough.
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