Senior night did not go the way Duke planned.
The No. 25 Blue Devils fell to N.C. State 2-1 in their last regular-season match Friday at Koskinen Stadium. With the loss, Duke drops to No. 5 in the ACC tournament, which starts Wednesday in Cary.
And the reason Duke's six seniors did not leave Koskinen with a win was, once again, attributed to a lack of intensity.
"Everybody just came out flat," senior Darrius Barnes said. "We were unenthusiastic, we weren't playing like we played the last few games in our five-game unbeaten streak. We just showed up."
After a strong first few minutes of the game, Duke (10-6-2, 3-3-2 in the ACC) lost control to N.C. State (8-8-1, 3-5) for the rest of the half. With 10 minutes left in the opening period, the Wolfpack's Ronnie Bouemboue put the ball into the left side of the net beyond Duke goalkeeper Brendan Fitzgerald's reach. The goal came after the Blue Devils repeatedly failed to clear the ball past midfield, allowing N.C. State to launch multiple attacks on Duke's defense.
The Blue Devils' uninspired play continued throughout the first half and carried over into the start of the second. Within 45 seconds of the whistle, Bouemboue had scored his second goal of the night. Wolfpack midfielder Alan Sanchez snuck a through ball to Bouemboue, who was streaking up the right side of the field. While Duke fans screamed for an offsides call that never came, Bouemboue outran his pursuers and shot the ball into the bottom left corner of the net.
Less than a minute after they had emerged from halftime, the Blue Devils knew they were in trouble.
"People started realizing that we were a better team than them, and that we couldn't just show up, we had to put the effort in on the field," Barnes said. "People started realizing a sense of urgency."
Fifteen minutes later, Duke began to turn the game around. The teams traded control of the ball, and after Duke's Nick Sih was taken down just inside the goal box, senior Mike Grella found himself behind a penalty kick. Grella approached the kick, stutterstepped, faked the goalie to the left and blasted the ball into a wide-open lower-right corner.
"The goal definitely gave us a big lift," Duke head coach John Kerr said. "We got a lot of energy and enthusiasm after we scored, and we created two or three other good opportunities to score."
Grella's goal spurred a Duke offensive attack that produced nine shots on goal in the second half, more than double the four taken in the first half. Still, the Blue Devils could not convert any of their newfound opportunities.
"We were just unlucky there," Barnes said. "We had a missed ball right on the six [yard box] right there... but it happens. You win some, you lose some."
"[The first two goals] gave us a lot to do in the second half," Kerr said. "We fought valiantly to come back, but it was too big of a hole to overcome. Unfortunately, we just didn't finish on the right side of the score line tonight."
Kerr was disappointed that his six seniors-Barnes, Grella, Fitzgerald, Pavelid Castaneda, Graham Dugoni and Brad Ramsey-couldn't go off on a winning note. But a loss doesn't change the value of the seniors' recognition.
"I wouldn't change anything," Barnes said. "I love this place, I love my teammates and I've enjoyed every single time I've stepped foot on this field with my teammates. I just want this season to go on as long as possible."
Although Friday may have been the seniors' last game at Koskinen, their season will continue in the ACC tournament and, most likely, the NCAA tournament. Duke enters the ACC tournament Wednesday with a quarterfinal match against fourth-seeded Virginia, and Barnes said Duke will "be coming in hungry" after Friday's loss.
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