Down the stretch run, Duke used timely scoring and a favorable schedule to claw its way into the ACC tournament field as the regular season drew to a close. Facing the third-ranked team in the country Sunday in the tournament quarterfinals, the Blue Devils could not find the back of the net.
No. 3 Florida State scored two goals in less than two minutes early in the second half and held on to defeat the Blue Devils 2-0 Sunday afternoon at the Seminole Soccer Complex in Tallahassee, Fla.
Duke (8-8-4, 5-6-3 in the ACC) entered the match fresh off a 6-3 win against Pittsburgh in which the Blue Devils attempted 31 shots, but was able to muster just six against a stingy Seminole defense. With the win, Florida State has now gone 31 matches without a loss at home.
“It’s a tough place to go play,” Duke head coach Robbie Church said. “I thought we were a little bit tentative at the beginning. We were defending well but giving the ball away too much on offense, trying to be direct when we could have settled.”
Early in the second half, the Blue Devils had their best scoring opportunity of the day, when freshman Toni Payne found sophomore Kara Wilson with a pass, setting her up with a 1-on-1 opportunity against Seminole goalie Kelsey Wys. Wys was able to make a save, a play Church characterized as a game-changer.
Following the big save, Florida State (16-1-3, 10-1-2) was quick to strike after being held scoreless in the opening period, even though its leading goal-scorers were held in check all afternoon.
In the 51st minute, a Seminole attacker fell to the ground attacking along the left side of the penalty box, and Florida State was awarded a penalty kick. Sophomore Isabella Schmid stepped up and snuck a shot past Duke goalie Meghan Thomas for her first goal of the season, giving the Seminoles a 1-0 lead.
“[At that point] I think we dropped our heads a little and lost some focus,” Church said.
Seconds later, another Duke defensive miscue opened the door for another Seminole opportunity. This time, junior midfielder Kristin Grubka fired a shot past Thomas after the Blue Devils had failed to clear a corner kick, netting her second goal of the season to pad the Florida State lead. The play developed after a Seminole shot hit the crossbar and deflected off the leg of Duke forward Kelly Cobb, redirecting the ball right to Grubka.
In the first meeting between the teams this season, Florida State broke a 1-1 tie with a goal in the 87th minute, leaving Duke next to no time to mount a comeback. Sunday, the Blue Devils had nearly an entire half to answer, but were unable to do so.
Church said the Blue Devils made some substitutions after the second goal and reconfigured their formation, which resulted in some better offensive looks.
“We had some opportunities, but they were not as good as they could have been,” Church said.”
The Blue Devils will now play the waiting game. The NCAA tournament field will be announced Nov. 11, and while Church expects Duke to be among the 64 teams whose ticket to the tournament will be punched, he has no idea where his team will end up.
“It’s crazy to guess,” Church said. “One of the things will be to get away from the ACC schools. All we’ve done is play top team after top team.”
Unlike in college basketball, only the top four teams in each regional receive numbered seeds. Duke last entered the tournament as an unseeded team in 2010, when the Blue Devils advanced to within one victory of the national quarterfinals.
By no means does a loss in the ACC quarterfinals wrap up Duke’s season. Last year, the Blue Devils suffered a 1-0 loss in overtime to Wake Forest in the quarterfinals, but went on to advance all the way to the national quarterfinals before losing to Penn State. Duke has hosted its first-round tournament game in the past two seasons.
Just by evaluating Duke’s win-loss record, the Blue Devils might appear to be a bubble team, but Church believes his team’s results against one of the nation’s toughest schedules give the Blue Devils a strong tournament-ready resume. Duke has strong wins that include road triumphs at Notre Dame and Texas A&M, as well as quality ties against Virginia Tech and West Virginia. Five of Duke’s eight losses on the year have come against teams that have spent time ranked in the top five.
“If you look at our body of work, it’s really only the elite teams that have given us a hard time,” Church said. “It’ll be good if we can get a couple wins against schools we haven’t seen before, and build some momentum [within the tournament].”
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