Duke looks to snap a five match winless run and get its second ACC win of the season.
The Blue Devils will hit the road this weekend take on Boston College at 1 p.m. at Newton Soccer Complex in Newton, Mass. Duke has won its past three regular season meetings against the Eagles and the Blue Devils will hope to stretch that streak by another season.
“Right now we are not in the ACC tournament,” head coach Robbie Church said. “We’re not in the NCAA tournament. We’re below .500. So we’re playing for our soccer lives and we have got seven games left.”
Duke (4-5-3, 1-3-2 in the ACC) is coming off a 1-1 draw against then-No. 16 Virginia Tech in which the Blue Devils equalized through junior forward Kelly Cobb with 17 minutes to go. Boston College (6-6-0, 3-4-0) posted an impressive win against then-No. 9 Wake Forest, but had its two-game winning streak snapped by No. 5 Florida State in a 4-3 result Thursday night.
“They really took care of their business, especially against Wake Forest,” Church said. “They’re a very, very difficult team to play at home. They play on turf fields. It is a totally different game when it is played on turf so when they’re at home they have a huge advantage.”
Duke’s recent problems stem from an inability to keep the leads. The Blue Devils recently surrendered advantages in a loss to No. 1 Virginia and draw against Syracuse.
“It is obviously disappointing that we could not keep some of the leads we’ve got," Church said. "It was encouraging that early in the year we weren’t scoring early so we’ve done a nice job of that and that was great. The second part is that we’ve got to finish up the job.”
Church noted that injuries were a major factor in the failure to protect leads as they resulted in positional changes, creating lineups that were unfamiliar to his team.
“The last two games we had to take our back Christina Gibbons and play her in the midfield,” Church said. “Then we had take our forward Mollie Pathman and move her to back. Now you have a back four that’s not quite the same because you haven’t been training or playing together.”
Sophomore defender McKenzie Meehan, who has 12 goals on the season and leads the ACC with eight goals scored in conference play, will lead Boston College as they look to broach the Blue Devil defense. Junior forward Stephanie McCaffrey will also be a handful as the Duke defense tried to regain its dominance.
“The real player for them is Stephanie McCaffrey,” Church said. “She makes them go. [McKenzie] who’s scored all their goals has done a great job. She’s very good at finishing and doesn’t need many opportunities. So it’s going to be a great challenge to shut her down and shut Stephanie McCaffrey down and get a win.”
Duke must play with a sense of urgency, as every game from now on will decide whether the Blue Devils will take part in any postseason soccer this year.
“I like what we are,” Church said. “I think we’re playing the best soccer of the year. I think we’re getting healthier than we’ve been all year and I think we’re more committed on the field and on the sidelines than we’ve been all year. So I do think we’re ready for a great October.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.