After being handled by No. 1 North Carolina Wednesday night at home, dropping its first ACC contest in the process, Saturday's game against No. 9 Wake Forest (8-1-1, 0-0 in the ACC) takes on a critical importance for the women's soccer team.
Given the prospect of dropping to 0-2 in the ACC, No. 10 Duke (7-3-1, 0-1) plays what is arguably its most pivotal game of the season Saturday night at 7:00 in Koskinen Stadium.
"Wake Forest will be a big game for us no question because we are 0-1 in the league and we are 0-1 at home [in ACC play] and we can't afford to go anything less than that," head coach Robbie Church said.
How Church's team responds to the 4-0 loss to North Carolina will be critical in the outcome against the Demon Deacons.
"We have to learn to play at this level," Church said after the North Carolina game. "I think we have to learn from this game. It could be interesting to see what we take from this game into the Wake Forest game."
On the field, the Blue Devils will have to contend with a stingy Wake Forest defense. The Demon Deacons are coming off a 1-0 shutout of East Carolina Wednesday night. The win marked the eigth consecutive victory for Wake Forest.
"I think their back four is pretty good," Church said. "They don't score a lot of goals but they have gotten the timely goals. It will be a great challenge for us, one we are looking forward to because I think we got better [against North Carolina]."
The Demon Deacon defense has allowed just six goals through 10 games, three of which came in an early season 3-0 loss to Notre Dame.
Wednesday night against East Carolina, the defense surrendered just five shots. Goalkeeper Kenna Healy has played every minute of the season in net for Wake Forest and earned ACC Player of the Week and Soccer America Team of the Week honors last week. She has built an impressive 0.59 goals against average.
Yet the Blue Devils remain confident they will be able to penetrate the defense, putting good shots on goal.
"I think if we just stick to our game, we will be fine; play wise and do what we do," midfielder Carmen Bognanno said. "We are going to score some goals on them."
On the defensive side, Duke will have to contend with a formidable pair of freshmen for Wake Forest; Alena Thom and Elizabeth Remy lead the attack for the Demon Deacons.
Duke has accumulated a 2-2-1 record against five ranked opponents this season, but Saturday's game against Wake Forest is likely to be the most important yet. It very well might determine whether the Blue Devils continue their solid early season play or fade into mediocrity.
"Wake is a big game, but it was going to be a big game either way," Bognanno said. "Every ACC game is big in general."
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