Blue Devils sweep home slate in weekend's Classic

Ask a Duke player who has the strongest right-footed shot on the team, and almost every one will give the same answer: C.J. Ludemann. And in the 56th minute of Sunday's contest with Ohio State, the sophomore midfielder validated her teammates' beliefs.

Ludemann collected a pass from sophomore Elisabeth Redmond and blasted a 25-yard laser past the sprawling goalkeeper into the upper left corner of the net, lifting the Blue Devils (5-1-2) to a 2-1 win over the Buckeyes (6-3) in the Duke Classic at Koskinen Stadium. It was Duke's fourth straight win, its longest winning streak since 2005.

"I can hit from far out, but I hadn't been lucky enough to score yet," said Ludemann, who leaped in the air and screamed when the ball crashed into the netting. "I got lucky this time. It was a great goal. I got really excited."

Freshman Madeline McEwen's first career score put Duke ahead 1-0 in the 43rd minute. After the ball bounced around the midfield-as it did for most of the game, because the teams played matching formations-fellow freshman Kendall Bradley gained control and sent a long ball down the left side of the field. McEwen ran it down, dribbled twice and connected on a hard, low strike to beat the goalie on a breakaway.

But five minutes into the second half, the Buckeyes responded. From the top left corner of the box, Lara Dickenmann took a direct kick that ricocheted off the inside right post into the net. The goal briefly evened the contest and also ended senior goalkeeper Allison Lipsher's three-match string of shutouts.

Lipsher was still named the tournament's Defensive MVP for her efforts, which included a 4-0 blanking of San Francisco Friday night in Duke's weekend opener. In that win, junior Kelly Hathorn scored twice, and both Bradley and Ludemann added their first career tallies. In only eight games this year, six Blue Devils have notched their first scores-partly because Duke head coach Robbie Church has the utmost confidence in his heralded freshman class and has employed a liberal substitution pattern.

The continuation of Duke's scoring outburst this weekend capped a four-game stretch in which the Blue Devils have scored 15 goals-an even more impressive number considering they netted only one in their first four contests.

Those days, though, seem ancient now, disappearing quicker than Ludemann's game-winning strike sailed into the goal to put the exclamation point on the weekend.