After losing senior tri-captain Lauren Miller to a fractured hand in the first game of the weekend against Drexel, Duke struggled through the remainder of its road trip.
The Blue Devils (3-1) suffered an unexpected loss to Drexel Saturday and defeated unheralded St. Joseph’s (0-2) in overtime Sunday.
The No. 10 Blue Devils scored three unanswered goals aginst Drexel (3-0) in the first half. Senior captian Amie Survilla scored the first of her three goals after two minutes of play Saturday, and she scored again in the 15th and 20th minutes, giving Duke an early 3-0 lead. However, the team fell apart after Miller, a defender, suffered the injury toward the end of the first half. She remained in the game but could not play with her usual intensity.
“Lauren is sort of our quarterback on the defensive unit and without her voice, it showed,” head coach Beth Bozman said. “A lot of our game revovles around her. People needed to step up and they did not.”
The Dragons responded with three straight goals in the second half to tie up the game. The contest was decided in overtime when Carolina Gibernau scored the game-winning goal for the Dragons.
“We had some defensive breakdowns,” Bozman said. “To their credit, they are very dangerous offensively. So we needed to be just as sharp as they were, and we weren’t.”
On Sunday the Blue Devils took on the Hawks, but they were forced to make several adjustments to the line up after losing Miller to injury the day before. Miller started the matchup with St. Joseph’s but was substituted early on.
“We had to change our lineup without Lauren in it,” Bozman said. “Our back four had two freshmen and two sophomores, which is a pretty inexperienced back line. There were times when our seniority was two juniors today.”
Despite the lack of experience starting for the Blue Devils Sunday, they scored the first two goals of the game. Sarah Schoffstall received a pass from Rhian Jones and put the ball into the net for the first goal of the game, and Survilla continued to put points on the board by scoring the first of her two goals at the start of the second half.
The Blue Devils controlled the game, dominating the Hawks in shots and possession, but a small lapse in defensive play made the game close.
“We dominated play today with the exception of about 30 seconds, literally 30 seconds, and they capitalized on a few mistakes,” said Bozman.
The Hawks manged to score three goals in a span of five minutes. Ellen Rowe scored goals at 49:57 and 50:36, and later in the half Jen Wrublesky tallied another goal. The game was tied at 3-3 and the Blue Devils were forced to play their second consecutive overtime. Tara Jennings scored the game winner, but overall the team was not content with its performance over the weekend.
“I would be kidding you if I didn’t say it was a real ugly weekend for us. But we survived,” Bozman said.
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