As the regular-season campaign heats up, the Hoyas will leave Washington and head to Durham looking for a boost in the polls.
After a convincing road win to start ACC play, No. 14 Duke takes on Georgetown Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Koskinen Stadium, pitting a young team still experiencing some growing pains against one aching for its first victory of the year. Winners of two straight, the Blue Devils have rebounded from an unexpected home loss to Elon with a 12-6 win against then-No. 16 Pennsylvania and Saturday's 13-4 rout of Virginia Tech.
“Georgetown is a young team like us,” Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “We expect a battle. They are a very good team, they have not won a game yet, I think they’re going to come in here really desperate...and we have to be ready to step up to that challenge.”
Despite an explosion for 25 goals in its past two games, Duke (4-3) continues to focus on developing its offense, which boasts a number of new additions following the graduation of six starters. Although senior goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea and rest of the Blue Devil back line have strung together strong defensive performances, Kimel's offense has not been able keep the team in games, enduring long scoring droughts in losses against the Phoenix, Northwestern and Southern California.
Not all of the new additions have had difficulty making the transition, though, as freshman midfielder Olivia Jenner is third on the team in points with 14—13 more than the next freshman. Jenner also leads the team in draw controls and has proven adept at giving the Blue Devils extra possessions.
One of the freshmen Duke hopes to get more involved in the offense is two-time high school All-American Ellie Majure, the only new addition to the attack unit. Majure has just one goal on the young season and is among three freshmen playing significant minutes, with the rest of the newest Blue Devils waiting in the wings for a chance at more game action.
“I think that it’s been a work in progress,” Kimel said. “Particularly these last two games, I’m happy that we are holding teams to under six goals, which is really good at this level, but we’re not scoring as easily as we were last year in part because we’re young. I think every day, every game and every practice that they’re better and that’s all we can ask for.”
Georgetown (0-4) returned four of its top five scorers from last year's squad but came out flat to start this season. In the last two weeks, both Princeton and Towson have beaten the Hoyas in the final quarter, sneaking by on just a single goal on both occasions.
Duke is familiar with Georgetown, though, as assistant coach Laura Morton spent two years in Washington alongside Hoyas head coach Ricky Fried before coming to Durham. Fried doubles as the head coach of the U.S. women’s national team, which counts Duke sophomore midfielder Maddie Crutchfield as a member.
“Even though you kind of know what to expect, you still have to stop the kids one-on-one,” Kimel said. “You have to make saves, you still have to defend well individually and collectively as a unit. That’s our goal, even though we have a good sense of what they’re trying to create offensively.”
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