Winning the draw control battle propelled the Blue Devils to victory in their final ACC game of the regular season.
On Saturday against Boston College (6-7, 1-4 in the ACC), No. 8 Duke (9-5, 3-2) ended its three-game losing skid and eked out a 12-11 win at Koskinen Stadium. The Blue Devils have improved their ability to control the draw since their loss to Virginia Mar. 26, when a poor performance on faceoffs cost them the game.
“I think the big thing is the draw control,” Blue Devil head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “That was obviously a huge factor to be able to have the ball and generate on offense.”
Duke senior Emma Hamm led all scorers with five points, including two goals and three assists. Boston College graduate student Kristin Igoe led the Eagles with four goals in the first half.
Igoe struck first less than a minute into the game, but the Blue Devils’ leading scorer, Taylor Trimble, and sophomore Molly Quirke answered with a goal each. Freshman Mikaela Rix and senior Brittany Wilton responded with two more Boston College goals to give the Eagles a 3-2 lead with 23:32 left in the half.
After winning the ensuing draw, Hamm needed just 12 seconds to score and spark a 4-0 Duke run, but the Eagles staged a rally of their own, including two tallies from Igoe and a goal from sophomore Kate McCarthy. Trimble put Boston College’s run to a halt with a score off a pass from Hamm, but the Eagles netted two more goals to take an 8-7 lead at the half.
In the second period, the Blue Devils solidified their defense, holding Igoe scoreless.
“We decided that we were going to faceguard [Igoe] in the second half and just didn’t let her have the ball very much,” Kimel said.
Although the second half proved more successful for the Blue Devil defense, the team exhibited a less potent offensive attack.
“[In the first half], our offense was really rattling off goals, really had good mojo moving the ball, and the defense was struggling,” Kimel said. “It reversed itself in the second half, where our attack was not finding a good flow of the game, and our defense really tightened up and did a good job.”
Boston College senior Sam Taylor started the second-half scoring 10:46 into the period. In the next six minutes, Duke answered with tallies from seniors Kat Thomas and Kim Wenger.
Thomas, an All-ACC selection last season, was appearing in her first contest of the year after being sidelined due to injury.
With less than 10 minutes remaining in regulation, Wilton notched her second goal of the day. The Blue Devils finally found an offensive spark with 3:52 left on the clock, building a 12-10 advantage powered by a three-goal run. With just 17 seconds left to play, Eagle junior Brooke Blue found the back of the net to pull the game within one. Hamm won the final draw of the contest, denying Boston College the opportunity to tie the game.
“We’ve got to find a way to play more consistently,” Kimel said. “We’ve been up and down throughout the course of the season, and in the games we’ve really performed well, we played consistently for 60 minutes and both units had really strong outings. I’d like to see us play more consistently from one half to the other, and from one unit to the other.”
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