After losing its two top offensive players and goalie to graduation, Duke looks to its younger players to fill some big cleats with confidence.
Finishing third in the ACC last season behind No. 2 Maryland and No. 4 North Carolina, the Blue Devils hope to achieve similar results this year as they gain momentum throughout the course of the season.
“We’re going to take each game at a time, and every team has a sort of chemistry, and that’s something we need to work on every year,” senior captain Lindsay Gilbride said. “In general, we’re very talented and skilled, so we just have to get connected and [achieve] that sense of togetherness.”
No. 5 Duke will face off against Denver today at 4 p.m. at Koskinen Stadium, where it will attempt to start off the season on a strong note. The two teams have played each of the past three years in the Blue Devils’ first match of the spring.
“We’re going into the game with no expectations, as in it doesn’t matter who we play, the No. 1 team or an unranked team,” senior captain Danielle Kachulis said. “We’re going to try our best, and we have our whole class playing, so we have an urgency and an enthusiasm that will be present. We hope to set the tone from the first whistle.”
Duke’s matchup against the Pioneers should be an even one, since Denver also graduated a big chunk of its offense, and has always been a “tough and scrappy” team, head coach Kerstin Kimel said.
The Blue Devils must adjust with a young group of freshmen and sophomores playing on offense, but Kimel said the team has been working on its execution in practice.
“One of the things we are really trying to do is build depth and work on our ability to be flexible and adaptable, like we have eight to nine players on the bench who can come out and play if others are out with injury, or just for a change of pace,” she said.
“We have changes game to game, and some kids have growing up to do, particularly three freshmen who didn’t have a chance to play much in the fall, and some sophomores who didn’t play a lot last season.”
Duke didn’t have a very extensive preseason to help prepare for the spring schedule, but the Blue Devils did have the opportunity to play against the U.S. Elite Team in Orlando Jan. 31, where the squad realized what it needed to work on in order to be a competitive opponent.
“We were fortunate enough to be able to go to Florida, and there, our youth showed,” Kimel said. “We did not have as much composure as we had hoped, and on the offense, we were not as smooth or connected. But that was expected, and we’re looking to grow over the season.”
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