When No. 3 Duke travels to Uniondale, N.Y. to play Dartmouth Saturday, it obviously won't be a home game.
But for some of the Blue Devils, it might as well be.
With a whopping 18 members of the team hailing from the state of New York, Duke (9-1) is looking forward to quite a reception in its first trip to the Empire State since a 2005 visit to face Army.
"We'll have a sick home crowd because some of the guys are from Long Island, so that will be fun for them," midfielder Sam Payton said. Payton, who hails from Cos Cob, Conn., is one of 29 Blue Devils not from New York.
In comparison, only eight of the Big Green's 43 players come from New York. Dartmouth (4-3) is located in Hanover, N.H., and the match is being played at a supposed neutral site.
Despite the obvious advantages of having a strong fanbase away from campus, head coach John Danowski warned his team against getting too excited for its homecoming of sorts.
"We have a lot of Long Island guys, and one of the challenges this week presents is that sometimes when you go back to Long Island, you want to play great and you want to do too much as opposed to letting the game come to you," said Danowski. "That's something we're going to have to watch out for."
Danowski, himself a Long Island native, coached 21 years at Hofstra in nearby Hempstead, N.Y.
Duke will also have to watch out for Dartmouth's attackmen, undoubtedly the strength of the squad. The Big Green are led in scoring by Ari Sussman and Brian Koch, who have scored 15 and 14 goals, respectively. In its most recent outing against Holy Cross, Dartmouth scored 21 goals en route to an easy victory.
The Big Green, however, also allowed 12 goals against the hapless Crusaders, and Duke should look to exploit its opponent's defensive frailties.
The Blue Devils recovered from a defeat of their own last week, blowing past Harvard 10-3 Tuesday. Duke lost its only game of the season at Georgetown last Saturday, but responded well in the victory over the Crimson.
"Our team defense was terrific [against Harvard]," Danowski said. "We communicated better, we were in better position on the field, we slid, we recovered, we helped each other. We limited their shots and we played some more people, and I think that helped us."
That type of defensive intensity will be important Saturday, when the weather is expected to be cold and rainy in Uniondale. Thursday, Durham was sunny and breezy, but Payton said weather will not be an issue.
"I don't think [the rainy weather] changes the game at all," Payton said. "The weather is supposed to drop here anyway, so we just take everything in stride as it comes."
With 10 games already gone this season, the Blue Devils have just four contests remaining before ACC tournament play begins. After the matchup with Dartmouth, Duke will take on two of the nation's best in No. 8 Johns Hopkins and top-ranked Virginia.
Before getting to those games with national title implications, though, Danowski said there is much his team can do better.
"We're like a 'B' so far," Danowski said. "We're a good team, not a great team yet. We have to get better man down, we have to play better team defense, be more consistent. We have to develop that second midfield, and we can't run that first midfield into the ground, so there are areas we need to improve."
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