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Duke women's soccer routs Charlotte in NCAA tournament opener, to host rounds 2 and 3

<p>Freshman Ella Stevens and senior Toni Payne celebrate one of the team's three goals Saturday.&nbsp;</p>

Freshman Ella Stevens and senior Toni Payne celebrate one of the team's three goals Saturday. 

On Friday night, Ella Stevens and her freshmen teammates gathered in her dorm room and watched their postseason prospects improve when No. 2 seed Notre Dame fell in penalties to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

The upset meant Duke would host the second and third rounds of the NCAA tournament—if the Blue Devils could get past the first weekend.

And No. 3 seed Duke did just that, with Stevens leading her team to a 3-0 win against Charlotte in the first round of the NCAA tournament Saturday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium. Stevens scored the first goal 10 minutes in, then assisted Toni Payne and Mia Gyau in the second half in Duke’s first game in nearly two weeks.

“Ella got her legs in the rest, Toni got her legs in the rest,” Blue Devil head coach Robbie Church said. “For the team, no question the best thing that happened was being eliminated on penalties [by Florida State in the ACC quarterfinals].”

Stevens scored a goal that she thought should not have counted to start the game. Payne dribbled outside of the box and fed the freshman, who finished a shot into the bottom-right corner and out of the reach of goalkeeper Anna Shelden for her team-leading ninth goal of the year.

“Honestly I was offsides,” Stevens said. “I kind of looked at the ref and I was still there, and I was like, ‘Oh God, gotta shoot,’ so I shot.”

Charlotte—which Duke outshot 15-3 on the day—secured a penalty 19 minutes later when Martha Thomas tiptoed down the baseline near the Blue Devil goal. Although defender Schuyler Debree was trying to force Thomas out of bounds, she stayed in bounds and moved closer to the goal, drawing a foul as defender Lizzy Raben slid in and got a piece of Thomas as well as the ball.

But the junior got all iron.

Her penalty kick hit to the top-right corner of the frame, bouncing away from the goal. The 49ers (11-9-2) sent a cross back into the box but junior goalkeeper EJ Proctor punched it away to preserve the lead.

From there Duke (13-4-3) took control the rest of the way. In the 50th minute Stevens returned the favor to Payne. The Grayson, Ga., native flicked the ball over the back line, and Payne then chipped it into the bottom-left corner of the goal over an encroaching Shelden.

“We’ve been working on it all week in practice,” Payne said. “It was just kind of muscle memory.”

For Payne, it marked a game that could have been her last at Koskinen Stadium had she lost or the Fighting Irish won Friday night. But with her dad as vocal as anyone in the stands, the first-team All-ACC forward brought as much energy she has all season in her 11th career NCAA tournament contest.

The Birmingham, Ala., native finished with three shots and recorded her second assist by again connecting with Stevens. This time in the 69th minute, Payne found Stevens at the top of the box, who quickly controlled the ball and dished it to Gyau.

The freshman took a touch and hit a shot with the outside of her right foot into the bottom right corner of the goal, celebrating with a jump of exhilaration.

“Lately Robbie’s been putting me deeper, I’m not the highest player,” Stevens said. “I work well when I have the ball and can turn and play through balls. And I think that’s what I’m best at. So it was just having that freedom in the middle of the field.”

After the strike, Church subbed out most of his starters, allowing the Blue Devils to rest before their game Friday night against Illinois State, which topped Michigan in penalties Saturday evening. Church said Duke will likely be without sophomore Taylor Racioppi again, but she is making progress and could still play in a late postseason run after missing nine straight games with a lower-leg injury.

It was a bittersweet win for Church, defeating a program he led from 1994 to 1998 as head coach in Charlotte. After taking the 49ers to their first NCAA tournament appearance in 1998, he is looking for the Blue Devils’ first-ever NCAA championship.

And in the words of sophomore Kat McDonald, as she did a little shimmy during the postgame stretches, “We’re still dancing.”

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