Just two minutes into No. 8 Duke's contest against No. 5 Wake Forest, the Demon Deacons' Liz Fries converted the first penalty corner of the game to put the Blue Devils in a 1-0 hole.
Moments later, Wake Forest sophomore midfielder Melissa Martin found the back of the net on a pass from Regina Shannon, giving the Demon Deacons two goals within the first five minutes of the game.
The deficit proved too much to overcome for Duke (3-3, 0-1 in the ACC) as they fell to Wake Forest 4-2 Saturday at Williams Field.
"We have to start out harder in games," junior Laura Suchoski said. "We played down a level in the opening 10 minutes of the game, and that was a huge factor for them."
After the initial blitz, the Blue Devils held the Demon Deacons in check for most of the first half, keeping Wake Forest (2-2, 1-0) scoreless for over 20 minutes. Meanwhile, Duke got on the board when sophomore forward Amie Survilla scored off a touch pass from Suchoski 25 minutes into the game.
The Blue Devils could not keep their momentum going, however, and surrendered another goal before halftime, which pushed the Demon Deacons' lead back to two.
Coming out of halftime, Duke played much more aggressively, out-shooting Wake Forest 14-4. The increased intensity was attributed to a change in mentality.
"Our attitude was just to beat them to everything," Suchoski said. "We played with our hearts on our sleeves."
Most of the second half was played on the Demon Deacons' side of the field, giving the Blue Devils several scoring chances, especially on penalty corners.
In the end, though, Duke was only able to convert one of those shots into points.
"We could've played a much better game," senior goalkeeper Caitlin Williams said. "Wake Forest capitalized on a lot of our weaknesses."
Overall, the Blue Devils outshot the Demon Deacons 18-12 and held an 11-3 advantage in attempted corners. But just like in its loss to Iowa, Duke failed to convert its numerous scoring opportunities into enough points to win.
"You outshoot a team 18-12 and out-corner them 11-3, you have to win that game," head coach Beth Bozman said.
The Blue Devils hoped to rebound from the loss the next day against Radford (2-3). And although Duke won the game 4-0, Bozman termed her team's effort "horrendous." Duke allowed the Highlanders to attempt 10 shots and 6 corners in the game.
"We should be coming out against a team like Radford and just experience complete domination," Suchoski said.
Duke does have some positives to take from the weekend. The Blue Devils' play in the second half against Wake Forest was a glimpse of how well they can perform, especially on offense. And with a quarter of the season already over, Duke must figure out how to put the ball into the cage.
"We have a lot of plans," Suchoski said. "Now we have to start executing those plans on the field."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.