The Blue Devils seemed to have finally hit their stride offensively after a season-high four goals against Syracuse en route to a conference-opening victory.
Later this week, they will look to extend their winning streak to seven.
The 13th-ranked Blue Devils are set to take on Miami at 7 p.m. Thursday at Cobb Stadium in Coral Gables, Fla. Even though Duke has been dominant offensively, the Blue Devil defense has been the key over the past few games and has kept opponents scoreless for the last 230 minutes of play.
Sunday's win against the Orange marked the sixth clean sheet in nine games for the Duke defense, led by goaltender Brooke Heinsohn and defender Chelsea Burns. Burns, the sole senior defender, has guided a stout Blue Devil defense supported by sophomores Taylor Mitchell and Karlie Paschall and freshman Delaney Graham. The mixture of youth and experience seems to be working so far, as Duke has allowed only four goals in nine games.
“[The underclassmen] have made it easier on me,” Burns said. “A lot of defending and being a part of the back line is mentality, so I’ve taken it on myself to teach them what it’s about. My thing is fighting for one another every moment of every game, and trying to get them to buy into that and buying into me helps a lot.”
Much of the Blue Devil defense presents a dual threat. Burns was the third-leading scorer on the 2017 squad and Paschall has scored two goals—both on penalty kicks—and notched three assists on the season. Graham and Mitchell have also recorded assists. Furthermore, many Blue Devil attacks this season have started from play on the defensive end.
“We’ve been coached a lot on defending forward,” Burns said. “Helping each other out with organization while our forwards and midfielders are attacking has been pretty big for us.”
Duke’s facilitation of offense through the defense has been a result of head coach Robbie Church’s soccer philosophy.
“One of the things we do really well is that we defend as a whole team,” Church said. “I think what separates the good teams from the great teams is how hard you work defensively. We’re not as good as we need to be, but we’re getting better in that area.”
Contrasted with the Blue Devils' success so far this season, Miami has struggled out of the gates. The Hurricanes are coming off an overtime loss to Clemson and have lost to all four ranked opponents they have faced this year. Miami (3-4-2) has fallen to Duke in each of the teams' last three matchups. In fact, the Hurricanes haven’t scored against the Blue Devils since 2012.
But after a road game in Syracuse on Sunday, the Blue Devils (7-1-1) depart for Miami early Wednesday morning, leaving little time to rest their legs.
“This is going to be an interesting one,” Church said. “We had a whole week to prepare for [Syracuse]. We don’t have a lot of time for this one. Coming back to this is going to be a good little test of how tough we are mentally.”
Miami freshman Gudrun Haralz has tallied three goals and two assists on the season, making her the Hurricanes’ leading-scorer and tied for the team lead in assists. However, the Iceland native has not scored in the last six games.
Miami is also led by junior defender Bayleigh Chaviers and senior goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce, who have bailed the Hurricanes out of tough situations this season. They’re going to have to perform at their best to have a chance to take down an explosive Duke squad.
Following Thursday's matchup, Duke will return to Durham Sunday and host Virginia at 2 p.m.
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