Duke women's soccer's College Cup dreams halted by Virginia Tech

Duke was 13 seconds away from heading to the locker room tied. Instead, a late first-half goal for Virginia Tech dealt the Blue Devils a blow from which they would never fully recover.

The top-seeded Hokies tacked on two more goals in the second half, defeating Duke 3-0 in an Elite Eight matchup Friday in Blacksburg, Va., to advance to the NCAA semifinals. The loss marked the second consecutive season that the Blue Devils have fallen one win short of the College Cup.

"The whole game completely changed on the goal with 13 seconds left," Duke head coach Robbie Church said. "I thought we were playing really well. We knocked a couple off the post. I think two things happened. When we got the ball, we got nothing out of our attacks, we were getting off the post, off the crossbar. When you get good opportunities you've got to finish in this game."

The goal by Virginia Tech's Katie Yensen late in the first half put Duke in a position it hadn't faced all NCAA tournament: a deficit. But more important than the 1-0 flashing on the scoreboard was its timing.

"I think we were angry, we were like 'Thirteen seconds, really?'" Blue Devil goalkeeper Meghan Thomas said. "Our mindset definitely changed. It's different going to half in 0-0 or up 1-0. Going in down 1-0, it's hard, especially in an Elite Eight game where goals are hard to come by."

After playing a strong 44:47 of first-half soccer, Church said he felt as though the goal toyed with the team's psyche and affected their play in the second half.

"We could feel it in the locker room as coaches, it was hard to get everybody back [mentally]," Church said. "A lot of people were thinking about how it broke down and what happened to break it down. Virginia Tech, like any good team, they knew we would be thinking about that at halftime, they knew how important that goal was. [In the second half] we were still thinking about it, our reactions were slower, and they just came at us in waves in the second half."

With a second-half lead, many teams might be content to put defenders behind the ball and clog up Duke's chances of evening the score. Virginia Tech had no such ideas, applying more pressure to the Blue Devil defense. The Hokies controlled the ball for much of the second half—when Duke (9-9-6) was able to gain possession, it struggled to keep it and string together enough passes to mount a comeback bid.

Needing to score to stay alive, Church tried to change up the Duke formation, but the only goals that came were for the Hokies (19-4-3). Shannon Mayrose upped the Virginia Tech lead to 2-0 in the 65th minute, and Jazmine Reeves knocked home her 11th goal of the season to seal the victory.

In the first meeting between the two teams this season, played in Durham, Duke was able to fight to a 1-1 draw against the Hokies Sept. 29. Virginia Tech stumbled into postseason play, losing two of its final three matches. Since then, the Hokies have caught fire, defeating two ranked teams before falling in the ACC tournament championship to Florida State. Virginia Tech also defeated No. 12 West Virginia and No. 9 Santa Clara—advancing on penalty kicks—to reach the Elite Eight.

"They're playing better right now," Church said. "Obviously with the run that they've had, they're more confident, they're playing at home. They've been so consistent all year."

Entering the tournament as an unseeded team, the Blue Devils were considered a surprise team to advance to the Elite Eight, securing two of its three tournament victories via gritty performances and clutch penalty kicks. Thomas said she feels the team can build on a strong postseason during the offseason, despite the loss of several standout seniors who played their final collegiate games Friday.

"We fought this whole season," Thomas said. "We had some ups and downs but through it all we were together, we were a team. I think we should look back on this season with nothing but pride and happiness. We got to the Elite Eight, nobody expected us to do that, but we expected ourselves to do that. We needed to prove that to the world and I think we put a stamp on the Duke program going into next year."