Thanks to her two goals and one assist, Ashton Miller was the star of the Duke's comeback win against Pittsburgh Thursday evening. But three days later, a mistake from the sophomore midfielder penalized the Blue Devils, leading to their third conference loss this season.
No. 22 Duke fell to No. 15 Notre Dame 1-0 at Koskinen Stadium Sunday afternoon as the Fighting Irish converted a penalty kick just three minutes into the game. With the defeat, the Blue Devils have won just one of their four ACC home games and have captured just one point against ranked conference opponents in Durham this season.
“We battled really hard today. I can’t complain,” Duke head coach Robbie Church said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t connect passes as much as we needed to create good [opportunities]. And then we got away a little bit from our game. We got direct in the second half. We did that on purpose because they were really squeezing us in midfield. We started to play diagonal balls over the top and we created some opportunities. But that is how it goes.”
Just two and a half minutes after the opening whistle, the referee called a handball by Miller inside the box. From the penalty spot, forward Anna Gilbertson—the Fighting Irish's leading striker with nine goals—rifled the ball past a diving E.J. Proctor into the left bottom corner and put Notre Dame ahead 1-0. The Blue Devils looked for the equalizer for 87 minutes, but could not find it.
The early Notre Dame score was an unexpected blow for the Blue Devils (9-5-4, 3-3-3 in the ACC), who needed some time to regroup. Despite not putting any shots on frame in the opening period, Duke had a couple of opportunities to tie the contest.
In the ninth minute, freshman forward Kayla McCoy—Duke’s top scorer with six goals—found a bouncing ball inside the 18-yard area and sent a low cross toward Imani Dorsey. The sophomore attacker shot from four yards out, but missed the target.
With nine minutes to play before intermission, freshman attacker Taylor Racioppi created another opportunity to even the score. The Ocean Township, N.J., native entered the small box after challenging a couple of Notre Dame defenders and fed McCoy with a low cross, but McCoy could not tap the ball into an open net.
“Take away that [penalty kick] and the game was really even,” junior captain Christina Gibbons said. “It’s an unfortunate loss but overall we fought really hard. Everything was not perfect today. We didn’t break them down perfectly but everyone was really fighting for second balls and fighting in tackles, so we can take away how much everyone is invested in this team.”
As the Blue Devils struggled to manufacture quality attempts in the first half, Notre Dame (12-4-1, 5-4-0) threatened to extend its lead, outshooting the hosts 6-0. Four Fighting Irish players—Taylor Klawunder, Natalie Jacobs, Sabrina Flores and Kaleigh Olmsted—powered one shot apiece, but they all missed the target.
Despite having more of an attacking mentality and outshooting the Fighting Irish 8-5 in the closing period, the Blue Devils’ dominance did not pay off. Racioppi and Dorsey led Duke’s attack after intermission with three shots each.
Seven minutes into the second half, Racioppi had the first opportunity to find the equalizer, firing from 20 yards out, but a Notre Dame defender turned her attempt away. Dorsey corralled the deflected ball and powered another long-range shot that goalkeeper Kaela Little stopped.
In the 65th minute, Dorsey fired a 20-yard shot that came within inches of finding the back of the net. Four minutes later, the forward made a 50-yard run to enter the penalty area, where she fizzed a shot past Little but wide of the far post.
In a three-minute span, Racioppi posted two shots, but the Fighting Irish goalkeeper pulled off a couple of saves in the 60th and 63rd minutes. That was the closest the Blue Devils got to rolling the ball home. Little had little work for the rest of the second period as the Blue Devils did not register any dangerous attempts after Racioppi’s strikes.
“In the first half, we were having a hard time breaking their pressure, so we were not connecting passes as much,” Dorsey said. “In the second half, we were able to move through their lines more and getting behind more. But we also had a more aggressive mindset. I felt like I just had to get at them more and more as much as I could in comparison to the first half, so it helped us a lot.”
Throughout the last 20 minutes, Notre Dame made sure its one-goal advantage held up by controlling possession and keeping the ball away from its penalty box.
Gilbertson had two chances to net her second goal of the afternoon, but her shot in the 76th minute went wide and Proctor collected her second save of the contest three minutes later.
Junior Rebecca Quinn did not play Sunday after suffering a concussion in Duke's historic win against then-No. 7 North Carolina Oct. 16. Junior Lizzy Raben occupied her place and formed a center-back duo with Gibbons.
The Blue Devils will have a full week to prepare their last home conference game of the season against N.C. State Sunday afternoon.
“The N.C. State game obviously becomes the most important game of the season now,” Church said. “It’s our last game to give the NCAA the best resume that we possibly can for seedings in the NCAA tournament. [For that game,] we’ve got to connect balls better. That’s who we are. We’ve just got to go back and play what we do best—and what we do best is connect passes and move the ball.”
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