Stock Watch: Women's soccer continues climb; tennis teams open season on right note

The bell of the Blue Zone stock exchange has just rung again, meaning it's time to take another look at who is rising and falling with their performances for Blue Devil sports teams. Each week The Blue Zone will look at whose stock is on the rise and whose stock has taken a hit from the week in the world of Duke athletics.

Bull Market-Trending Up

Women’s soccer- After only scoring four goals in a span of four games, the Blue Devils erupted for a six goal lashing of Appalachian State Friday night in their final tune-up game before ACC play. The Blue Devils were able to conjure up a four goal second half against the Mountaineers thanks in part to redshirt sophomore Cassie Pecht—who has bounced back from a knee injury that kept her out for the last two seasons. 

Duke followed up its blowout with a solid effort against second-ranked Florida State Sunday that ended in a scoreless tie. The Blue Devils came out aggressive and outshot the Seminoles 25-8 in the contest. With the result, Duke has now finished with 0-0 draws against two top-five ranked opponents this season. 

Blue Devils in Cary, N.C.- Duke athletes made their presence felt just 20 minutes off of campus in a trio of impressive showings this past weekend. The women's cross country team turned in a second-place finish at the adidas XC challenge and ousted fellow ranked opponents in the Southeast region. Meanwhile, the women's tennis team emerged with two singles winners at the Duke James Bonk Invite. Freshman Jessica Ho and Kaitlyn McCarthy both finished the tournament unbeaten and sport 3-0 records to begin their college careers. The men's tennis team also performed well in their opening weekend as sophomore Nicolas Alvarez placed second at the Oracle/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Masters and freshman Vincent Lin won the Duke James Bonk Invite consolation finals. The impressive performances have the respective teams' coaches excited about the year to come.  

Free merchandise- Nothing brings a college student more happiness than free gear. DevilsGate has made many college students very happy these past two weekends with eye-popping t-shirts and visors handed out before the N.C. Central and Northwestern games. At this rate, it's only a matter of time before Duke’s tailgate club has provided students with enough free gear to sport an outfit of entirely free items. 

Bear Market- Trending Down

Excitement on offense- In Duke’s 19-10 loss at home to Northwestern Saturday one thing was blatantly evident—the Blue Devils’ offense is both predictable and too one-dimensional. Despite a strong start, it was obvious midway through the second quarter that Duke posed no down-field threat who could stretch the field for the squad. Northwestern’s safeties then began cheating up towards the line of scrimmage and effectively stuffed the run for the remainder of the contest. The result was a sloppy game that was not a pretty sight for both teams' fans.