Midterms. Illness. Jet lag. Whatever the reason, the Blue Devils looked a step slow Friday night in their ACC matchup against Florida State, falling 3-0. The loss dropped then-No. 13 Duke to 18th, with a 1-2 ledger in the ACC and 8-4-1 overall record.
The Blue Devils were playing in their first game outside of North Carolina all year. Also, a few Blue Devil players were sick, to compound upon Duke's problems.
However, head coach Robbie Church was still disappointed with the performance.
"I was not happy with the pace of the game," he said. "We played at a slow speed against a quality opponent, and the score indicated that."
Leah Gallegos scored two goals for the Seminoles, including the contest's initial goal following a Duke turnover.
"The goal resulted from a bad decision in front of our goal," Church said. "She did a nice job of finishing from twenty (20) yards out after the turnover. She was able to capitalize offensively, something we haven't been able to do all year."
Florida State only outshot Duke by one, 14-13. Yet, the Blue Devils' inefficiency from earlier in conference play again reared its ugly head (Duke has only scored one goal in three ACC games).
Julia Schnugg scored the other goal for the then-No. 22 (currently No. 11) Seminoles.
Florida State improved to 2-1 in conference play and 8-5 overall. Changes, while not landmark, are still in order according to Church.
"We are putting in a few new wrinkles in our offense. Obviously, we are getting enough opportunities, but we are just not doing a good job finishing. We are going to move more players forward and into better offensive positions, so hopefully we can stick some of those chances that we are getting."
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