Sometimes just two minutes and a little bit of luck can make all the difference.
Unfortunately for the Blue Devils (5-2-2, 0-1-0 in the ACC), lady luck was not smiling down on them as they lost a 2-0 heartbreaker to No. 5 Virginia (7-1-1, 1-0-0) Thursday night at Koskinen Stadium.
After an evenly-played first 63 minutes in which neither team could generate a real scoring threat, Virginia forward Kelly Quinn put a chip shot over the head of Duke goalkeeper Allison Lipsher to break the stalemate.
Lipsher had come out of the box to stop Quinn, but the Cavalier forward popped the ball over her head, and it rolled into the net, despite the best efforts of three Duke defenders who tried to chase it down before it crossed the goal line.
Head Coach Robbie Church said that from the angle at which he was standing, it appeared as if Quinn's fluke shot was going out of bounds, and that once it went in, his team struggled to recover.
"We went toe to toe with [Virginia]," Church said. "A goal like that just breaks your rhythm, and it breaks your concentration."
Quinn's strike left the Blue Devils in such shock that Virginia capitalized again less than two minutes later, as midfielder Julia Falk put away a one-touch cross for a 2-0 advantage.
The Duke defense looked discombobulated for that two-minute stretch and feels it has a lot to learn from the second-half miscues.
"We obviously didn't respond as well as we should have," defender Christie McDonald said of the defense's reaction to the first goal. "We let another one in right afterwards. It's something very valuable to learn, especially this early in the season."
Blue Devil midfielder Elisabeth Redmond said the offense's increased pressure in the second half contributed to Virginia's scoring burst by forcing more players to the Cavalier half of the field. Yet, Duke maintained its high-paced attack even after the 70th-minute tally in an attempt to level the score.
The Blue Devils' best scoring opportunity came with 15 minutes left in the game when Jane Alukonis put a header off the crossbar that ricochetted straight down but not in. Lorraine Quinn had a last-ditch effort with one minute to go but it too missed the net.
Although the game was very disappointing for Duke, it was one that held special meaning for Redmond. Her older sister Jen plays for Virginia and had an assist on the second Cavalier goal. The Duke sophomore said she tried not to think about it too much.
"It's always tough," Redmond said of facing off against her older sister. "But it's just a game."
Now that the Blue Devils have opened conference play, their focus on each contest has intensified. The team must move forward as it faces Virginia Tech Sunday at 2 p.m. at Koskinen Stadium.
"We're going to do our best to regroup after this game and go at them again," Redmond said.
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