The last time the women's soccer team met Virginia, the Blue Devils dashed the Cavaliers 2004 NCAA title hopes with a 3-0 victory that advanced Duke to the round of 16. But in Sunday's match at Koskinen Stadium, Virginia avenged that loss.
At the 50:16 minute mark, Virginia forward Jess Rostedt faked out and dribbled around Duke goalkeeper Allison Lipsher and drilled an angled shot from the right side into the unprotected goal. With the score, Rostedt and Virginia took a lead which was never relinquished.
No. 11 Virginia's 1-0 victory spoiled the No. 7 Blue Devils' undefeated record.
The Blue Devils (7-1-1, 1-1 in the ACC) were relentless in the first half, dominating play on the offensive end but were unable to finish. Senior defender Carolyn Ford nearly scored twice, once with a header off the crossbar in the 13th minute and the other time with a shot, saved by Virginia goalkeeper Christina de Vries in the 23rd minute.
"I thought we did start off very well and did some nice things in the early half," Duke head coach Robbie Church said. "I know we possessed the ball well but when we got in the final third we were not as dangerous as we needed to be."
The Virginia offense came alive after halftime, swinging the momentum of the then-scoreless game into its favor. In the 50th minute, Rostedt finally put the Cavaliers on the board with her goal. The Cavaliers (7-2-1, 2-0) went on to outshoot the Blue Devils 6-2 in the second half, finishing with an 8-6 shooting advantage for the game. It was the first time the Blue Devils have been outshot all season.
"In the second half, the whole game changed," Church said. "In the first 10-12 minutes of the second half, they just outplayed us. They worked harder than we did, they won first and second balls and then got the goal.
"When you are playing a great, quality team like Virginia you have to play all of the time for 90 minutes. We had a little bit of a letdown and they punished us for it."
A few minutes after Rostedt's goal, the Virginia foward beat Lipsher again to the right, and shot what appeared to be another sure open-net goal. But defender Rachel-Rose Cohen seemed to come out of nowhere and dove into her own net to clear Rostedt's shot.
"I was really close to getting a save the first time, but she just shot it a little harder for me to save it," Cohen said of Rostedt. "I said to myself, 'this time I am definitely going to go and get there,' so I put the burners on and ran a little bit faster."
Though they were down, the Blue Devils refused to hand the Cavaliers the game. In the last 23 minutes, Duke tallied several shots, all of which went wide. The Blue Devils fought until the end, changing their formation to an alignment with just three defenders to free up another offensive player to attack in the last nine minutes of the game.
"We are a very good team and this loss doesn't mean we are not a good team," Church said. "It will be interesting to see how we respond in training and how we play at Boston College next week. We will learn from this game, and it is still only September as there is a lot of soccer left."
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