The Blue Devils will not have to trek out west to continue their postseason run.
After defeating No. 24 Colorado College in penalty kicks Saturday, Duke will host the next two rounds of the NCAA tournament, beginning with a matchup against second-seeded Florida Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Koskinen Stadium.
“Florida’s a very good team—they’ll be a good team on their field, or on our field, or a neutral field,” head coach Robbie Church said. “Being home gives you an advantage because you’re familiar with everything. You’re much more comfortable, but you’ve got to go out there and do the work.”
Koskinen has not treated the Blue Devils (8-8-5) well this season in comparison to previous years. In the 2012 season, the squad ended 7-1-2 at home, compared to this year’s 3-3-2 record. The Gators (18-4-1) enter Friday having won 10 of their last 11 games.
“They are a great possession team," Church said. "They pass the ball really well, they move off the ball really well—you watch the tapes and you just love the way that they play, but there are some things that we can exploit playing against them."
Florida’s biggest threat is freshman forward Savannah Jordan, who has already notched 22 goals this season, the second highest of any freshman in Gator history.
“We’ve got two players, Lizzy Raben and Natasha Anasi… that will be covering [Jordan] a lot during the course of the game, and I feel both of those players are up to task with that,” Church said. “Natasha’s been an All-American here, and Jordan will probably be a freshman All-American… so we look forward to that matchup.”
Saturday’s win at Colorado College marked Anasi’s 70th straight start. She will look to continue to make crucial stops as part of Duke’s second-to-last line of defense on the field. To challenge Florida’s attack, which has averaged 2.26 goals per game, redshirt junior Meghan Thomas will start in the goal. In Saturday's contest—which marked her 10th start of the season—Thomas notched a career-high nine saves.
“Your goalkeepers have to come up big, and they have to make one or two saves that are just crucial saves. [Thomas] did that against Colorado College, and I know she’ll do that against Florida,” Church said. “She’s done a great job for us. We would not be in this situation, we would not be playing this weekend if it wasn’t for Megan.”
On the offensive end of the field, Duke has had its struggles. The team averaged 1.11 goals per game through its first nine contests of the season, netting multiple goals in a game just once in that opening stretch. Currently, that number has increased to 1.33, signaling that the offense is on the upswing.
Scoring has only become more important for Duke as the season wears on. Finishing their regular season at 8-7-4, the Blue Devils were a bubble team with no certain bid into the NCAA tournament. After narrowly making the conference tournament only to lose in the first round to then-No. 2 Florida State, Duke now has a chance to make its fourth consecutive Round of 16 appearance.
“I think that we’re really peaking at this point. I think our confidence is really high, and this team is really special when you get in do-or-die situations,” Church said. “We’ve been in these one-and-done scenarios for much longer than a lot of people, and I think this team kind of thrives on that.”
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