On senior day at Koskinen Stadium, Duke found itself trailing No. 5 Florida State, 1-0, with 45 minutes remaining in its last home game of the year Sunday.
And then, fittingly, senior captains Rebecca Moros and Darby Kroyer swooped in to save the day.
Moros buried a shot to the bottom left corner of the net in the 47th minute to equalize the score. In the 77th minute, Kroyer deflected a corner kick into the goal, which proved to be the game-winning score as the Blue Devils upset the Seminoles, 3-1.
"You couldn't have written a better script than to have them score the goals," head coach Robbie Church said. "They have been main-stays of our program for four years."
Junior Lorraine Quinn added an empty-net goal in the 87th minute to round off the scoring for Duke (8-6-2, 4-3-1 in the ACC).
Despite the fact that the victory snapped a three-game winless streak for the Blue Devils, the focus throughout the day was on Duke's nine seniors. After they were honored in a pre-game ceremony, Church proceeded to start all of the seniors.
During the first half, however, it looked as if the surging Seminoles (12-2-2, 5-2-2) would spoil Duke's afternoon. Coming off of a 3-2 win over No. 18 Wake Forest, Florida State struck first when Selin Kuralay beat Duke goalkeeper Allison Lipsher with a header to give the Seminoles a 1-0 advantage.
The Blue Devils, though, were not worried about trailing. Duke's strategy throughout the game was to stick with Florida State in the first half and determine its weaknesses, then pounce with a high-pressure offense in the second half.
The Blue Devils executed Church's plan to perfection.
Senior Sarah McCabe took a pass from Quinn, and sent it toward the goal where goalkeeper Ali Mims punched it to the top right of the box. Moros was there to field the rebound and fire the ball low past Mims.
"That goal was huge," Church said. "We felt good going into halftime, but we needed a reward. We needed to say we could score on them."
After a barrage of continuous Duke pressure throughout the second half, senior Lauren Tippets sent a corner kick to the top of the penalty box. Freshman Elisabeth Redmond headed the ball to the right side of the goal, where Kroyer found the side-netting with the back of her heel. The goal was credited to Redmond at first, but was quickly corrected-much to the delight of the fans braving a cold, misty rain.
Just 10 minutes later, Quinn's scrappy play paid off with a goal of her own. With less than six minutes to play, the Seminoles pulled their goalkeeper and added another defender, Kelly Rowland, wearing a goalie's jersey. Quinn stole a pass on the Florida State side of the field and lobbed a 40-yard shot over Rowland to seal the victory.
The Blue Devils desperately needed the win to maintain their hopes for an at-large NCAA tournament bid. Before entering the ACC tournament-which will provide an opportunity for an automatic NCAA bid-Nov. 1, Duke travels to Miami Friday and Wake Forest Sunday.
"We're back in the picture," Church said. "We're still a work in progress. We haven't given them our full resumé yet-we have two games that are very important."
Even though their future is uncertain, the Blue Devils were able to shed tears of joy instead of tears of disappointment. Amid loud cheers of "Thank you, seniors!" from the fans, the seniors hugged and posed for pictures, celebrating their four years together.
"It feels great," Moros said. "I've never stopped believing in this team-it was just a matter of time."
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