Weekend ends in two straight scoreless ties

San Diego has plenty that Durham lacks. And even though the West Coast city claims an abundance of beaches on the Pacific Ocean, it was not the oasis Duke needed to break its scoring drought.

Duke failed to find the back of the net this weekend in the WCC/ACC Challenge, but its stingy defense also did not surrender a goal as the Blue Devils (0-0-2) tied Pepperdine (0-1-1) and San Diego (1-0-1) in their first two games of the season. The two draws extended Duke's scoreless streak to 635 minutes and 22 seconds-a number that dates back to the 2006 campaign-but that feat of futility does not worry head coach Robbie Church.

"The offense is still learning, but we're not far off from goals," Church said. "If you watch the games, you can see that we're very, very close. We're not far off at all. We have to continue to work in that area, get sharper and play a little quicker."

Duke's best scoring opportunity came in the 28th minute of the second game against San Diego. Sophomore C.J. Ludemann directed a free kick into the San Diego box and fellow sophomore KayAnne Gummersall collected the rebound and chipped it over the goalkeeper's head into the back of the net. Gummersall seemed to have the team's first goal of the year, but the linesman raised his flag to indicate that the forward was offsides, negating the goal. The near-score was the most significant chance of either game.

Neither Pepperdine nor San Diego had better looks than Duke at the net, but Pepperdine came closest to breaking the tie on Friday night. In the 10th minute, Pepperdine's Amanda Rupp snuck a shot past senior goalkeeper Allison Lipsher, who picked up her 27th and 28th career shutouts this weekend, moving her within six of the school record. The shot trickled past Lipsher, but junior defender Christie McDonald cleared the ball off the goal line to preserve the matching zeroes.

Duke's back line is more advanced than its offense at this point in the year, partly because the team worked on defense more in practice during the short preseason.

"The defense really clicked this weekend," Lipsher said. "We have a young back four, but they really stepped up and saved my butt a few times.... A lot of what we stress is defense. That's what we start working on as soon as we get going-we've worked on it a little bit more."

The Blue Devils return to action next weekend, playing Yale and Texas A&M in the Carolina Classic in nearby Chapel Hill. They can only hope that their scoring well is deeper closer to home.