Another game, another double-overtime finish for Duke.
The Blue Devils (7-3-5, 2-2-3 in the ACC), who were taken to extra periods for the fifth time this season, were unable to pull away from Maryland (5-6-3, 0-5-1) Sunday afternoon in Koskinen Stadium, finishing in a 2-2 draw.
"Right now, we're just a little off of our game," head coach Robbie Church said. "We're just not as sharp as we were earlier in the year. It's a long season-we're making it longer on ourselves by playing overtime games."
The contest was hard-fought on both ends for the majority of regulation, but fatigue caught up with the Blue Devils in the second half and a defensive breakdown allowed Maryland to tie the game in the 69th minute. Terrapins midfielder Nataly Arias fielded a pass from forward Kelly Rozumalski and fired it into the upper left corner of the net, erasing Duke's one-goal cushion.
The score ended a stretch of strong play for the Blue Devils. After starting out slowly and conceding the early lead on a tap-in by Rozumalski, Duke responded quickly and took control of possession in the later part of the first half. The Blue Devils utilized openings in the midfield to tie the game in the 33rd minute on a Lorraine Quinn strike from 25 yards out into the top right corner of the cage.
"We realized that there was space in the midfield to break it down on the dribble, so we were really concentrating on that," Quinn said. "That's when we started dominating the game."
Duke rode the momentum of its first goal to take the lead only seven minutes later when forward Rebecca Allen tallied her third goal of the season. Midfielder Madeline McEwen crossed the ball to forward Elisabeth Redmond, who played it out left to Allen, where she kicked it past the goalkeeper into the right corner of the net. Duke maintained control for the rest of the first half before Maryland came out firing in the second.
The Terrapins opened the second stanza as they did in the first-by putting pressure on the Blue Devil defense. Church said that his defense had trouble containing Maryland and allowed more shots than usual.
"We had too many gaps in our back four and [Maryland] just kind of went right through the middle," Church said.
After the Terrapins tied the score, both teams had their chances in the final 20 minutes of the second half and in both overtime periods. The Blue Devils, however, failed to find the back of the net. Church said he thought his players' legs had given out by the end of the match. His players were equally disheartened that their efforts failed to produce the desired outcome.
"The whole game, we were a better team," Redmond said. "We proved that, but the result doesn't show that."
With just three games left in the Blue Devils' conference slate, a tie was a disappointing finish to a long weekend of play. Maryland entered the game last in the ACC, and even though every conference game is tough, Duke hoped to earn a win against a lower-ranked opponent.
"Every team hits adversity," Church said. "Everybody hits a bump in the road somewhere. I'm anxious to see how we respond to adversity."
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