With less than eight minutes remaining in the first half, Paul Dudley blocked an attempted clear by Virginia Tech goalie Markus Aigner. Joe Germanese controlled the ball and briefly glimpsed a wide open net before a Hokie defender cleared the ball.
That sequence was a microcosm of Tuesday's game at Koskinen Stadium-and Duke's season overall-as the No. 24 Blue Devils (7-5-1, 2-3-1 in the ACC) struggled to convert their scoring opportunities and tied fourth-ranked Virginia Tech 1-1. Despite outshooting the Hokies (8-1-5, 2-0-4) by a margin of 17-10, Duke managed just a tie.
The draw, however, ended a three-game losing streak for the Blue Devils and kept Duke in the middle of the conference standings.
"I felt like we deserved to win...but with the way our luck has been running, it could be worse," head coach John Rennie said. "There's something very positive we can take out of this game-even if it's just a point, even if it's just stemming the tide of three losses."
After failing to score in their previous two games, the Blue Devils struck first against Virginia Tech-but only after they lost senior co-captain Tim Jepson for the night, this time to a cut on his forehead. Joshua Medcalf, who started in place of suspended forward Mike Grella, scored in the seventh minute. Spencer Wadsworth headed the ball ahead to Medcalf, and the fifth-year senior-all alone on the left side-put it over Aigner's head into the upper right corner of the net.
"Their team's slow as molasses," Medcalf said. "If I'm the slowest player on our team and I have a one-on-one with nobody within 15 yards of me, that's pretty poor defending, or just really, really sore people."
Duke controlled play for much of the rest of the game, outshooting the Hokies 6-2 in the first half and generating several quality scoring chances. However, as has been the case many times this season, the Blue Devils were unable to convert those opportunities.
"We didn't capitalize on some strong chances," goalkeeper Justin Papadakis said. "We just need to convert those opportunities that we're creating."
Duke's inability to put the ball in the net came back to haunt the Blue Devils. In the 72nd minute, Virginia Tech's Scott Dillie had his shot deflected. It dribbled into the left corner of the goal, tying the game at one and invigorating the Hokies.
"The goal we gave up was just awful," Rennie said. "It was just a disgraceful goal...that's just something you should never do."
The teams traded chances for the rest of regulation but neither squad was able to score. Virginia Tech missed a potential game-winning header with 30 seconds left in regulation, and Duke's last chance-Zack Pope's blast from 50 yards out-went just high as the buzzer expired.
The Hokies and the Blue Devils both had game-winning opportunities in overtime. Virginia Tech's Robert Edmans fired a shot that went just wide right and had the bench halfway onto the field. Medcalf had an attempt that hit the post.
"We killed them," Medcalf said. "We should've won that game. We should've beat them four or five to nothing."
But the Blue Devils, who are now winless in their last four games, have not been getting results. The schedule does not get any easier as Duke travels to Charlotesville Friday to take on No. 10 Virginia.
"It puts us in a still pretty bad situation going into Friday night," Medcalf said. "We need a win. I don't care how we win, I don't care if we get beat and win, I don't care what we do."
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