Returning from beautiful weather and a pair of shutouts in Hawaii, the women’s soccer team was unfazed by the pouring rain from Hurricane Ivan Friday night at Koskinen Stadium and pounded out a 3-0 win over Georgia.
With shutout victories over the Bulldogs and Furman this weekend, the women’s soccer team (6-2) won both of its games in the Duke adidas Classic. This marks the first time since 1995 the Blue Devils have won their own tournament. However, Duke did not face No. 1 North Carolina and won the tournament by virtue of scoring totals.
“That was one of our goals, to come and win our tournament,” said head coach Robbie Church after the team’s 7-0 victory over Furman Sunday.
Leading the attack was senior Casey McCluskey, who beat the Bulldog’s offsides trap for a pair of breakaway goals. With 20 minutes left in the first half, Rebecca Moros sent a pass from beyond midfield, hitting McCluskey in stride. The senior then buried a shot in the right side of the net to give Duke a 1-0 lead.
Eight minutes later, McCluskey received a similar pass from Carolyn Ford. With the Georgia goalie attacking the ball, McCluskey head-faked and dribbled around the sliding goalie. Staring at an open net, McCluskey hesitated and placed the ball in the middle of the goal.
“Sometimes the easiest goals are hard to make,” McCluskey said. “I wasn’t trying to do any moves, I was just really trying to focus on getting it into the goal.”
Georgia forced nine Duke offsides by playing its defense forward, but Church said his team remained aggressive and that it played to the Blue Devils’ advantage.
The Duke offense continued its relentless attack in the second half and added an insurance goal when Lorraine Quinn’s shot rebounded off the Bulldog’s keeper and Shelly Marshall slammed it into the net.
Goalies Kate Straka and Allison Lipsher combined for only two saves as the Blue Devils’ defense thwarted the Bulldogs’ scoring drives.
Duke came out Sunday against Furman aware that it had to score at least six times to top UNC’s eight-goal total. McCluskey again wasted no time and got the Blue Devils on the board by firing a shot from outside the 18-yard mark passed the outstretched goalie. Only five minutes later, she added her fourth goal of the tournament and sixth in her impressive streak of three straight two-goal games. Her second goal Sunday came on a brilliant pass from deep in the corner again from Moros.
Five other Duke players—Moros, Heidi Hollenbeck, Carolyn Riggs, Marshall and Katie Roark—also added goals as the team barraged the Furman goalie with 31 shots.
The most spectacular goal came on Shelly Marshall’s corner kick. Eluding all Duke and Furman players, the ball flew passed the onlookers and sliced into the far corner of the net.
“I was trying to get it to the back post and it sailed right in,” Marshall said. “We practice them a lot and to be able to finish them off in a game is really rewarding.”
With its 3-0 and 7-0 shutouts, five Duke players—McCluskey, Marshall, Moros, Kate Seibert, and Carmen Bognanno—made the All-Tournament team and McCluskey was named MVP.
“This was an amazing way to finish my Duke adidas Classic as a senior,” said McCluskey, who moved into third on Duke’s all time scoring list and is now four shy of second position.
Church said McCluskey’s recent offensive spurt will be noticed when his team begins ACC play, and he thinks that opponents are “really going to clamp down on Casey.” He also said that the attention will open up scoring opportunities for other players, as it did against Furman.
The Blue Devils will play one more out of conference game against Davidson Friday before playing nine ACC games starting with a contest at Wake Forest Sunday.
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