Time is running out on the Blue Devils to turn things around and make a final push for the playoffs.
After suffering a 2-1 loss on the road Tuesday against Elon, Duke returns home to Koskinen Stadium to square off with Pittsburgh Friday night at 7 p.m. The Blue Devils are in the midst of a five-game skid and haven’t earned a victory since the calendar turned to October.
“We’re trying to move forward. It’s a bummer that we haven’t gotten the results,” head coach John Kerr said. “We’ve played well—not all the time, but in many parts of each of those games, especially in the ACC games, we’ve played particularly well and been disappointed to come out on the wrong side of the result. But we have a young team, we’re learning, we’re progressing and hopefully at some point soon, we’ll click and get 90 minutes of good soccer from a Duke team.”
Friday’s tilt against the Panthers (4-7-4, 0-4-2 in the ACC) holds critical playoff implications for Duke (5-8-2, 2-4) as it tries to solidify its spot in the ACC tournament. The top 10 teams qualify for the conference tournament, with the top six seeds earning a bye as the four lowest-ranked teams play a pair of play-in games for the quarterfinals.
With six points, the Blue Devils currently sit in fifth place in the ACC Coastal Division and ninth place in the conference overall. N.C. State with five points and Boston College with four are right on Duke’s heels as all three jockey for the final two spots in the bracket. Virginia Tech—the Blue Devils’ other remaining ACC opponent—sits in eighth place with eight points and holds the enviable position of hosting a first round play-in game.
Duke ultimately has its sights set on securing a home playoff game by sliding into that seventh or eighth slot, but knows it has to get into the dance first before it can worry about where it is seeded.
“We’re trying to, number one, position ourselves to get into the ACC Tournament.... Then, we’re trying to place ourselves as high as we can,” Kerr said. “Everything goes down to the wire with the ACC tournament. Every game counts, so there’s still six points to be had. We have six points now, and the top teams in the conference have 12 points. It’s going to be interesting how the chips fall.”
Despite key offensive cogs Cameron Moseley and Sean Davis returning to the starting lineup recently, the Blue Devils are still a bit banged up heading into the stretch run. Freshman goalkeeper Joe Ohaus suffered a concussion during last Friday’s loss to Notre Dame, and is unavailable for the immediate future. Duke will now turn to senior Wilson Fisher—who stepped in for his first career start Tuesday and allowed just two goals despite facing 17 shots from Elon—until Ohaus is completely cleared of his concussion symptoms.
Regardless of who is in goal, the Blue Devils will have to break out of their recent offensive slump if they hope to come away with three points against Pittsburgh. Duke has not mustered more than a single goal in any game during its current five-game losing streak and hasn’t tallied more than two since Sept. 9 against Temple.
In an effort to climb their way out of this funk, the Blue Devils have altered their playing style recently to be more aggressive in the attacking third. Duke has yet to cash in with this adaptive strategy, but has seen enough positive opportunities to be encouraged about the offense heading into Friday’s contest.
“We’ve been trying to be a little more direct with our play and seize the openings that have been presented to us,” Kerr said. “We just haven’t capitalized on them, because there’ve been some good moments from us and some good balls played into good areas of the box. We just haven’t gotten on the end of some of the crosses and we just haven’t been as aggressive in and around the box as we need to be and then maybe as accurate when we take our shots.”
Although the Panthers will travel to Durham still in search of their first conference win, the Blue Devils are aware that Pittsburgh can be quite dangerous if overlooked. The Panthers have scored just 11 goals on the season—good news for Duke’s defense, whose 2.00 goals against average is last in the ACC—but are coming off an exciting 1-0 overtime win against High Point.
Kerr pointed to a scoreless tie at Virginia Tech as an example of how improved the scrappy Panthers are from last year, when Duke rolled to a 3-0 victory in their first meeting as ACC foes. But Pittsburgh—currently in last place in the ACC—would essentially be eliminated from playoff contention without a win Friday, giving the Panthers extra motivation to play their best game of the season.
“We could probably end Pitt’s season if we get a win on Friday night and make sure that we get into the tournament,” Kerr said. “So that’s the goal, trying to win the game and put ourselves in a better position. We know that Pitt is fighting for their lives so it’s going to be desperation for them. We cannot take anything for granted on Friday—it’s going to be a tough game no matter what. But we should have plenty of motivation, we need to get ourselves into the ACC tournament [and] we’re going to try to get ourselves up the ladder as far as we can go.”
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