Tonight the Blue Devils will have a chance to do something they have only done once in their history—win the ACC.
Duke travels to Dail Soccer Field to face N.C. State for its final regular season match at 7 p.m.
The No. 4 Blue Devils (15-2-1, 7-1-1 in the ACC) lead the conference with 22 points, and a win or draw would secure their first conference title since 1994. Even a loss could be enough if No. 9 Virginia and No. 11 North Carolina—both tied for second in the ACC with 19 points apiece—fail to win their matches tonight. The Cavaliers host Miami and the Tar Heels travel to College Park to face-off against No. 16 Maryland.
“The kids are so excited,” head coach Robbie Church said. “They’ve worked really, really hard all year and you couldn’t ask for a better position to be in. We’ve got one game left and our destiny in our hands.”
Though they have struggled in conference play, the Wolfpack (10-7-2, 1-6-2) are still in the running for an at-large NCAA tournament bid, Church said. Considering N.C. State has already been eliminated from contention for the eight-team ACC tournament, goes to show just how strong the conference has been this season.
“[The Wolfpack] defend great and don’t give up many goals,” Church said. “They have a very good goalkeeper, a very good back four, and they defend with six.... We’ve got to be able to break that down, and we’ve got to be patient.”
Kim Kern starts in goal for N.C. State, leading the conference with 92 saves so far this season. On offense, the Wolfpack are led by senior forward Tanya Cain and freshman midfielder Stephanie Bronson, each with six goals on the season.
“I think we do match up well with them,” Church said. “We’ve got to be disciplined in our attack. We’ve got to find the right players, and we’ve got to attack on the flanks, get to the outside, and bring it from the outside in.... We’ve got to play very aggressive.”
Kelly Cobb and Laura Weinberg pose a formidable threat to the Wolfpack defense, having combined for 16 goals this season. Weinberg’s two scores against then-No. 3 Wake Forest earned her NSCAA national player of the week and ACC player of the week honors.
On the other end of the field, Duke leads the conference with only three goals allowed in nine ACC games. Goalkeeper Tara Campbell, with the help of the back line, has posted a school-record 11 shutouts and leads the conference in both goals-against average and save percentage.
In the worst case scenario for the Blue Devils—a loss tonight and wins by both North Carolina and Virginia—they would finish tied for first in the conference, but lose both tiebreakers to get the No. 3 seed in the ACC tournament. The top four teams are guaranteed to host ACC tournament first round first round games this weekend, though, so Duke is guaranteed to be at home.
“This has been a fantastic week,” Church said. “[The program’s alumni are] a little jealous of our current team because of the position that we’re in. They wanted to have a chance to win an ACC title. Unfortunately, over the years we’ve been close, but we haven’t had that chance. This team does, but we’ve got to go close it out.”
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