When No. 4 Duke took the field Saturday, the team was met not only by a formidable opponent in 10th-ranked Iowa, but by a menacing sea of yellow in the stands as well.
Buoyed by the surprising number of fans who made the trip from Des Moines, the Hawkeyes (2-1) used a strong defensive performance and timely scoring to defeat Duke 2-0 at Williams Field Sunday.
"It was a problem with offensive execution," head coach Beth Bozman said. "We need to put more goals in and work on gutting it out."
Despite out-shooting the Hawkeyes 16-12 and out-cornering them 12-8, Duke (2-2) was unable to convert its goals and ultimately fell short of victory.
The first half went back-and-forth until Hawkeye junior forward Lindsey Duffy broke the tie on a breakaway midway through the first half. Iowa appeared to have another breakaway in the closing moments of the period, but Duke senior goalkeeper Caitlin Williams stopped the shot.
The second half started similarly, with neither team able to score for over 15 minutes. With 18:50 remaining in the contest, however, the complexion of the match changed entirely.
Blue Devil junior captain Courtney Elliott was set up with an open look and plenty of space, but pushed the shot wide to the right. Moments later, Iowa's Lauren Pfeiffer converted a corner to give the Hawkeyes a two-goal lead-putting the final nail in Duke's coffin. The three-minute sequence exemplified the match, as Iowa capitalized on a scoring chance while the Blue Devils could not score on an easy look.
"I feel like we had an equal number, if not more, attacking opportunities than them," Williams said. "I didn't feel a lot of pressure on me as a goalkeeper. We had a problem with finishing and we'll work on it this week."
Although Iowa was definitely a challenging opponent with a large raucous following, the Blue Devils placed a large amount of blame for the loss on themselves.
"This team knows it's good," junior forward Marian Dickinson said of her team. "We know that we can play so much better than we have."
The start to 2007 is completely different from last year, when Duke reeled off four straight wins to open up its season. After dropping two games already, this young and relatively inexperienced Duke squad must learn quickly from its mistakes. In their next match, the Blue Devils will face one of their toughest conference foes, No. 2 Wake Forest.
"We have to use all of the opportunities as learning experiences," Dickinson said. "We need to learn so that when we play Wake Forest, we do win."
Duke also has positives to build off, however, as they easily took down William and Mary 3-0 Saturday. The Blue Devils out-shot the Tribe 15-2 at Williams Field and did not allow William and Mary (2-1) to get off a shot until over 15 minutes had elapsed in the first half.
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