After maintaining their first-place standing in the ACC following the 1-0 victory over North Carolina, the fifth-ranked Blue Devils hope to ride their wave of momentum into their game against North Florida at Koskinen Stadium tonight at 6 p.m.
"It was certainly one of those total team efforts," head coach John Rennie said about the UNC game. "It was probably our best 90-minute performance of the season."
Although Duke (12-2-1) celebrated following the win, the Blue Devils have refocused and turned their attention to defeating the Ospreys (4-10-1).
"We were pleased with the win, but now we're focused on tomorrow's game and finishing out the regular season," senior Chris Loftus said.
North Florida is coming off a double overtime 1-1 tie against Mercer in its final conference game of the season.
The match will the first ever between the two teams. In preparation for the game, Duke is not working on changing many things but trying instead to maintain a consistent team effort.
"When things are working, you don't want to change a whole lot," Loftus said. "We're hitting a peak right now, and hopefully we can continue that."
The game also marks the final time the six seniors on Duke's roster will play a regular season game in Koskinen Stadium.
"I've had a lot of great memories on that field and played with a lot of great players," Loftus said. "I'm trying to keep that out of my mind right now and just focus on leading our team one game at a time."
After winning its last five games, Duke has hit its defensive stride coming into the end of the regular season, giving up only four goals in those contests. Since the Wake Forest game Sept. 8, no opponent has scored more than one goal on the Blue Devils.
"We're not worried about our offensive production right now because our work ethic on defense is so high," Loftus said. "When our work ethic is there, it leads to turnovers from the other team."
With only two games left in the regular season, the approaching post-season is on the minds of the Blue Devils. A Duke victory over Clemson Friday or a Virginia loss or tie against Wake Forest will give the Blue Devils the top seed in the ACC tournament, which the Blue Devils hope to win for the second year in a row.
"We have the potential to go extremely far in the tournament this year," senior Kyle Helton said. "Hopefully we will do that, but we're not really thinking about that."
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