This Saturday, the 14th-ranked women's soccer team (9-4-1) will battle the fourth-ranked Virginia Cavaliers at 7 p.m. in Koskinen Stadium. Going into this weekend's match, Duke is riding high on a critical victory against N.C. State Wednesday.
"That was a huge win for us against N.C. State," Blue Devil head coach Robbie Church said. "Anytime you can go on the road in the ACC and win is big."
Unfortunately for Duke, however, Virginia is also coming off of an important victory of its own. Tuesday night, the Cavaliers defeated the 19th-ranked Maryland Terrapins to extend their unbeaten streak to 11 games.
The entire season so far has been quite a success for Virginia. The Cavaliers have fought their way to a 11-1-2 overall record. What might be more impressive is Virginia's 3-0-1 ledger in the ACC, where four of the eight teams are currently ranked in the top 25 nationally. Their only non-victory in the ACC this year came against Wake Forest, where the two teams tied at two goals apiece.
Beating the Cavaliers will be quite a challenge for the Blue Devils, but they feel it is a task they can pull off.
"Virginia is a great team," sophomore forward Carolyn Riggs said. "We can't deny that but we are just as good a team, just not ranked as highly."
Keys to a Duke victory will be goalkeeping and converting shots on goal into scores. Throughout this year, the Cavaliers have racked up victories not by overpowering other teams with goals, but rather by suffocating them with tremendous defense.
"They don't score a ton of goals," Church said, "but they score very timely goals."
Virginia's terrific defense all stems from its senior goalkeeper, Anne Abernethy. So far this season, Abernethy has helped the Cavaliers to seven shutout games. Four of these victories came by only one goal.
Duke has the talent to beat Virginia, led by one of the nation's top goalkeepers in senior Thora Helgadottir and some of the best scorers in Riggs, freshman Lauren Tippets and sophomore Kate Seibert. The only thing keeping the Blue Devils from victory is themselves.
"We are very excited to play a highly regarded team like that," Church said. "This gives us an opportunity to give us a quality win."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.