Just when it seemed the Blue Devils had battled back from the brink of defeat to tie the game up with UCF in the closing minutes, the Golden Knights struck again and came out on top by a head.
No. 11 Duke (1-2) fell 3-2 to UCF (2-1) in the Carolina Classic Sunday in Chapel Hill after Stacie Hubbard’s game-winning header goal ended the Blue Devils’ attempt at a comeback.
Substitute Lynnea Pappas tied the score at two with a little over five minutes remaining when she collected a loose ball at the edge of the goal box and fired a shot to the top left corner of the goal. But less than two minutes later, Hubbard beat Duke’s defense on a corner kick, heading the ball against the bottom of the crossbar and into the net.
Head coach Robbie Church said the game-winning goal was partly a result of not having all of the players needed on the field to properly defend the set piece.
“We worked so hard to tie the game up,” he said. “We just didn’t get a good lineup back on the field.... We changed our formation so many different ways to go offensively and I didn’t get the defensive players that I needed to get back inside and that’s my fault.”
The Blue Devil back four also showed its inexperience earlier in the game, as it had some difficulty adjusting to a tactical change by the Golden Knights at halftime. Central Florida dropped one of its forwards down into the midfield and exploited open space on the sidelines. Making matters worse, freshman Nicole Lipp, who has emerged as a leader of the young defense, suffered a concussion after 25 minutes of play and did not return.
This comes to a team that is already missing four defenders who are out for the year. There is no word yet on the extent of the injury.
“Nicole Lipp’s injury was huge because she’s been one of our top players all year as a back,” Church said. “When she went out, it really made us play some more inexperienced players, and we’re already inexperienced back there.”
Although Duke held a 1-0 lead at the start of the second half, the momentum shifted completely less than three minutes into the period when UCF’s Nicolette Radovcic got loose on the right side of the field and sent a low cross to Courtney Whidden, who beat Duke goalkeeper Tara Campbell for the score.
In the 76th minute, the Golden Knights scored again in similar fashion as Yvonne George carried the ball up the left sideline and launched a shot on goal. Campbell responded with an excellent block, but she could not secure the loose ball and Whidden tapped in the rebound for her second score of the day.
Before UCF’s tactical change, though, Duke found some space in midfield and capitalized to take a first-half lead.
The Blue Devils dominated possession during the first half and outshot Central Florida 11-2. In the 30th minute they scored behind a perfect through ball from Elisabeth Redmond to KayAnne Gummersall. Gummersall took a few dribbles at the top of box before playing a ball across the front of the goal to Cody Newman, who buried the ball in the net with a one-timer.
“We played a great first half and we showed signs and glimpses of what we can be during the year,” Church said. “But we’re different—we’re different with injuries. Injuries in the course of the game have taken away from some of us, and some young players have to get on the field and play.”
But Gummersall, one of the Blue Devils’ top offensive threats, was stymied throughout most of the game, mustering only one shot on goal in the contest as her midfield teammates struggled to play her the ball.
She posted identical statistics in Duke’s 1-0 loss to UNC Greensboro (1-2) during the opening round of the Classic. That game played out in a manner almost completely opposite to the Central Florida tilt, as the Blue Devils took the first eight shots of the second half. Despite a barrage of 22 shot attempts for the contest, Duke could not get the best of the Spartan defense, and Greensboro’s goal in the 24th minute was enough to secure victory.
Even though the Blue Devils managed to do against the Golden Knights what they could not against the Spartans—battle back and score in the late stages of the game—their lack of veteran players on the back line ultimately proved costly. Duke, however, knows there is still plenty of time to build composure and learn from challenging situations like Central Florida’s last-minute corner kick.
“I think we played tough,” Gummersall said. “Obviously we had a few mistakes and they cost us the game. I think that we’re a very good team, we’re a young team, right now we’re injured, but those aren’t excuses. We’re going to come back and we know that we have to fight back.”
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