Anasi's goal sends Duke women's soccer to Sweet 16

Senior defender Natasha Anasi entered Friday's second-round matchup against Florida focused on containing the nation's second-leading goal-scorer, Gator freshman Savannah Jordan.

With the help of her teammates, Anasi accomplished that task and provided the contest's only offense as well, scoring in the 21st minute to lead Duke to a 1-0 victory against second-seeded Florida at Koskinen Stadium.

The victory secured the Blue Devils (9-8-5) a spot in the round of for the fourth consecutive season. Duke will host Arkansas Sunday afternoon for a chance to move on to the national quarterfinals.

"It all starts with our senior class and all they've been through, so many NCAA tournaments, so many victories, Final Fours, final eights," Duke head coach Robbie Church said. "They don't want to quit playing. They want to play some more."

The lone Duke goal was set up by three of those upperclassmen. Senior forward Mollie Pathman lofted in a corner kick to redshirt senior Kim DeCesare, who sent the ball across to Anasi. Florida goalkeeper Taylor Burke was screened on the play, and Anasi's shot trickled into the goal to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead.

"What a great set play. Kimmy made a great decision, Mollie drove it well, the ball went to the back side, a lot of times people will try to put that on goal," Church said. "[DeCesare] made a great decision to bring it back across, and it was such a great finish by Natasha. She's been close so many times on set plays during the course of the year, so she saved that one goal that we knew was coming to her at a really good point."

Although Duke's goal came on a designed play, the Blue Devil attack tried to get moving early Friday, looking to get opportunities in transition.

"The first goal in the NCAA tournament is always huge," Church said. "If we make a mistake, now it's a tie game. We had a number of good chances on breaks. It's a different strategy from what we normally play but when you have players like Kelly Cobb, Toni Payne and Laura Weinberg up front, it's a really good strategy to let them turn and run."

After the goal, the pressure was squarely on Florida to even up the score. In response, Church reconfigured his defensive formation.

"We went to our prevent defense a little bit," Church said. "We took a forward off and we dropped another one to a 4-2-3-1. They were getting looks but there really weren't that good of a look."

The looks for Jordan, though, were few and far between. Jordan, who scored 22 goals in the regular season, was hawked by Anasi and freshman Lizzy Raben all night long. The freshman still managed two shots on goal, but neither could find its way past Duke's Meghan Thomas, who recorded seven saves on the night.

"We were focusing on having her play balls back," Anasi said. "We didn't want her to get anything in behind. If we could keep her in front of us we knew that we could do a very good job playing against her."

Florida's offensive attack kept pressing, though, outshooting the Blue Devils 11-7 on the night. The last few minutes of the match were especially tense for Duke, as Thomas thwarted multiple last-gasp attempts from the Gators. Thomas said she tried not to let the pressure affect her play down the stretch.

"Honestly you don't really think about it," Thomas said. "Get the ball out, get the ball as far away from the goal as possible. Talk, communicate, and make sure they don't score."

Church said the Blue Devils would celebrate the win but quickly turn their attention to the Razorbacks, who defeated St. John's 1-0 earlier Friday.

"Arkansas, what a great run they've had," Church said. "They're athletic, they're hard, they're great on set plays, so they've got a lot of weapons that could really give us a hard time."

But the Razorbacks shouldn't give the Blue Devils anything they haven't seen before. Duke endured and survived a brutal stretch of ACC play this year, a battle Anasi and her classmates have been fighting since they first arrived in Durham.

"A lot of us have been playing [significant minutes] since our freshman year," Anasi said. "We've been in situations like this before and it's helped us get to where we are right now."

Matt Pun contributed in reporting.