Last weekend in Los Angeles, with only five teams in the country still alive in the NCAA tournament, the Blue Devils discovered that sometimes, the California sunshine is not all that bright, as top-seeded UCLA eliminated Duke 6-1 in the national quarterfinals.
And even though the sun had already set on the Blue Devils' season, they were not myopic enough to ignore the bright spots that had emerged throughout the year and specifically in the loss to the Bruins. For the second straight season, the Blue Devils advanced to the elite eight, exceeding expectations and overcoming adversity in the process.
"We had a fantastic year," head coach Robbie Church said after UCLA ended Duke's national championship hopes. "Three-hundred ten teams out there would've loved to have been in the situation we're in right now."
As the regular season came to a close, though, few would have predicted the Blue Devils (15-6-3) to be in that position, to still be alive after three games in the NCAA tournament.
Duke struggled on the road at the end of the season, likely because of an onslaught of injuries and fatigue from playing five of its last six matches away from Koskinen Stadium. In the five road matches, all against conference opponents, the Blue Devils posted a 1-2-2 record and only managed to net three goals collectively. Gone was the high-powered offense that powered Church's squad in the early season, and, as a result, Duke lost its top-10 ranking.
The team's offensive deficiencies even carried over into the ACC tournament, where Boston College defeated Duke 1-0 in the first round. It was the third straight game that Duke had not scored.
But when everything seemed to be falling apart, Church found a way to get the most out of his team, yet again. The Blue Devils were also touched by a stroke of luck that was out of the team's control, when the NCAA tournament's selection committee granted them a home game to start the postseason. From there, Duke was able to rest and regain the swagger it had established earlier in the season.
"We'd been battling through and it's been tough," Church said before the tournament. "Seeing that we're going to be home, seeing that we've been rewarded, is going to give us great energy and a great boost."
He was right. After advancing to the sweet 16, the Blue Devils traveled to face No. 2 Virginia. Given the team's road performances to close the season-including a 0-0 tie at Virginia Oct. 30-the road match might have stirred some anxiety. Church's team, however, was unfazed and managed to do something that it had not done all season: defeat a higher-ranked opponent away from Durham. And moreover, Duke did it by scoring two goals, its most on the road since a 5-2 loss in mid-October.
Any team is measured by how well it overcomes adversity. By that mark, the Blue Devils had proven more in their NCAA tournament wins than they did in their last loss.
"We did a number of great things this season," said senior midfielder Lorraine Quinn, who was on the Duke team that defied mediocrity and advanced to the elite eight in 2007, too. "We made a run in the tournament again, making it to the elite eight, which only a few teams in Duke's school history have done. I'm very proud of the girls that are my teammates right now, especially going down 6-1. We fought hard-we didn't give up anything for the last 20 minutes, which says something about our pride."
Quinn, one of the team's six graduating seniors, led the Blue Devils in assists this season and set up her teammates for scoring opportunities brilliantly all year. Two juniors, KayAnne Gummersall and Elisabeth Redmond, took advantage of those plays. The duo led Duke in scoring, as it did when the two were freshmen.
Fellow senior Cassidy Powers, who notched two of her nine shutouts in the NCAA tournament, echoed Quinn's sentiments.
"This team is one of the best teams that I've ever played on in my entire life, and I'm so happy to have been a part of it and to have gone this far," Powers said. "Just getting to the elite eight two years in a row is phenomenal, and I'm so happy I was part of it."
After all, the sun must peek out in cloudy weather before it can shine for good.
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