Duke entered last night's game against Clemson looking to reverse a recent trend-the inability to finish scoring opportunities.
Instead, the Blue Devils (7-6-2, 3-3-1 in the ACC) emerged with another frustrating loss, this time a 3-2 defeat to the Tigers (9-6-1, 4-3-1). Duke has not beaten Clemson since 2000.
"It's disappointing, especially since we've lost to them every single year since I've been here now," senior midfielder Lauren Tippets said. "But I guess we just have to put it behind us.".
Tippets scored Duke's first goal since October 1 to give the Blue Devils an early 1-0 lead in the 27th minute. Although Duke took that advantage into the half, it was not pleased.
"We should've been up three at halftime," head coach Robbie Church said.
The Blue Devils squandered many scoring opportunities in the first half, including a corner kick where they fired two shots on goal but failed to score.
"We've got to make better decisions with the ball," Church said. "We took some shots. I think we could've taken another touch. We could've made a decision to play the ball across the face of the goal."
Senior forward Sarah McCabe scored the other Duke goal in the 63rd minute, putting the Blue Devils up, 2-1. But the Tigers took the lead for good on second-half goals by Elizabeth Jobe and Julie Bolt, and Duke couldn't convert its late-game opportunities to force overtime.
Despite the loss, there were some encouraging signs in the game. Although Duke did not convert on as many scoring opportunities as it should have, it managed to score more than it has in recent weeks.
"We've been working on scoring goals all week," Tippets said. "It was an improvement to get two goals on the board. We just need to make sure that after we score our goals, there's not a letdown."
Duke has occasionally struggled with maintaining its focus after scoring.
"We need to be more mentally tough," Tippets said. "After we score goals sometimes, we get too complacent and we're like, 'We'll get the next one, it's okay, we're winning.'"
Church attributed some of his team's scoring problems to the players trying to do too much.
"Everybody just really wants to do things for the team, and really wants to get that goal," he said.
The loss makes this season's remaining games-against Florida State, Miami and Wake Forest-extremely important.
"The last three games are close, they're all closely getting to [being a must-win game]," Church said. "No question."
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