It was a game fitting of the nation’s top rivalry, but one that did not break in Duke’s favor.
No. 5 Duke squared off with No. 3 North Carolina in a back-and-forth battle at Koskinen Stadium, losing 12-11 in overtime. The Blue Devils scored the final two goals of regulation to tie the score and send the game to overtime, but Tar Heel midfielder Kara Cannizzaro scored the contest’s decisive goal with 3:30 remaining in the extra frame to give the Tar Heels the win.
“It’s always a big game when Duke and us come across each other,” North Carolina head coach Jenny Levy said. “Every game against Duke for us is a brawl and a battle. I think we got outplayed in the first half and did a good job at coming back and being tough. In the second half, we just made some tough plays down the stretch that made the different.”
After the teams switched sides midway through overtime, North Carolina (10-1, 3-0 in the ACC) won the game’s final draw and attempted to stall out the clock, but the Blue Devils’ pressure defense forced an errant pass, giving them a chance to tie the game in the closing seconds. After Duke (9-2, 2-2) called timeout and drew up a play with 30 seconds remaining, senior attack Makenzie Hommel found a good look at the goal but could not convert.
The shot trickled wide, but the Blue Devils retained possession with nine seconds to play. Duke frantically tried to get a final shot off, but junior midfielder Maddy Morrissey was called for a charging foul and allowed the Tar Heels to run out the clock.
“At the end of the game we forced a turnover, we called a timeout with a young team and drew up a play and ran it to perfection,” Blue Devil head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “We ran it exactly the way we wanted to run, and we just didn’t score on that play. It was a great play, Makenzie didn’t stick it—that’s just the way it goes sometimes.”
The Blue Devils surrendered the game’s opening goal just 1:05 into the contest, but responded with a 4-0 run to take a commanding lead. Two of the four goals were scored by Hommel, who led Duke with four goals on the evening. North Carolina responded with a four-goal run of its own before the Blue Devils knotted the score at 5-5 heading into halftime.
Another four-goal spurt gave Duke a 9-7 advantage with 19:15 to play, but the Tar Heels answered the Blue Devils’ blow once again. North Carolina took control of possession and notched another four consecutive goals to take an 11-9 lead.
Taylor Trimble’s goal with 7:46 remaining in the game tied the score at 11-11 before the pace of the game quickly slowed to a defensive struggle. With both teams searching for the go-ahead goal, Kimel said that the Tar Heels’ slow and deliberate pace caused her squad problems.
North Carolina held a firm control on the possession battle throughout the contest, winning 18-of-27 draws. The Tar Heels outshot the Blue Devils 33-19 in the contest, and despite allowing 12 goals in the game, freshman goaltender Kelsey Duryea recorded a career-high 15 saves.
Controlling faceoffs and ground balls has been a part of Duke’s winning formula all season, which Kimel said makes the loss to North Carolina even harder to swallow.
“We got completely outhustled on the draw and in ground ball situations,” she said. “That is something that we consider to be a signature of ours. To get beat like that, one more draw could have made the difference. We scored when we had the ball. That’s really hard for us to look at after this game.”
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