Fat lady ain't singin': success returns to Duke

In three games, the Blue Devils have mended their admittedly disappointing season.

In a trio of games the men's soccer team (5-8-1, 2-3 ACC) has dominated its opponents, reversed a losing mentality that had the squad mired in despondency and resuscitated a season that was on the cusp of total failure.

Now, after big wins against ACC rivals N.C. State and Virginia, and an impressive performance against Ivy League flyweight Dartmouth, the Blue Devils appear determined to make a last-ditch attempt at an ACC Championship and-or an NCAA Tournament berth.

In fact, there are few on this team who believe an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament is out of the question, including head coach John Rennie.

"Everything's clicking now," said freshman Chris Loftus, whose seven points in his last three games helped him win ACC Player of the Week Honors. "Everybody's feeling real good, and along with working hard in practice, we've finally been able to find that emotion we've been missing.... When that desire's there and you're having fun, everybody's going to make smart decisions and play better soccer."

Now the Blue Devils are looking ahead to this weekend's Big Four Tournament at Koskinen Stadium. Duke will play the UNC-Greensboro Spartans (7-4-2) tonight at 7 p.m. and will play the Charlotte 49ers (4-7-2) Sunday at 1 p.m.

The Spartans will most likely pose the greater threat to the Blue Devils. "They're just a really good overall team...They defend with ten guys, play an excellent offside trap, look to counterattack, and they have some real good speed up front," Rennie said.

The Spartan attack runs through star freshman forward Randi Patterson, a striker whom Rennie described as "a very skilled, very fast, very deadly kind of finisher." Patterson leads his team with eight goals.

The Blue Devils will also look to tightly mark midfielder James Goodman on free kicks and corner kicks. Goodman, at 6-foot-2, has developed a penchant for elevating above his defenders and scoring big goals in the penalty box.

Charlotte has been a very inconsistent team so far, and it is winless in its last four games, but is still a very dangerous team that Duke cannot afford to overlook. Junior Mira Mupier, like Greensboro's Randi Patterson, is an extremely fast player whom Rennie says "is a threat whenever he has the ball."

Victory for the Blue Devils will be contingent upon a variety of factors. First, they will look to continue their strong defensive play. Although goalkeeper Justin Trowbridge has put together three consecutive impressive performances, he is quick to shift the credit to his teammates.

"Our backs have done a tremendous job, and we've changed our form of attack, and our new attack has definitely taken the pressure off our defense," Trowbridge said.

This new Duke attack will be greatly ameliorated with the emergence of Loftus, whose gutsy two-goal performance against Virginia, in the words of Rennie, "shows you a lot about his character and his belief in his abilities." Loftus will join Duke scoring leader Nigi Adogwa as the primary threats in an offense that has awakened from its midseason slumber.

Duke's most powerful asset, however, is confidence--an important commodity for a team that knows it is one loss away from a losing season.

"We're a team that hates losing more than we like winning," Loftus said.

Can this surge push the Blue Devils to postseason success, or is it just a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing season? Apparently, none of the Duke players seem to care.

"We're just going to approach this season one game at a time," the heady Trowbridge said.