A tale of two halves described a somewhat sloppy matchup between Duke and Nebraska, in which the Blue Devils came away with the victory.
After going down early to the Cornhuskers Thursday night, Duke battled its way back into the contest after halftime to win 3-1 and increase its winning streak to four games. Sophomore Tess Boade broke through in the 58th minute to notch the equalizing goal and her first of the season.
“I just thought she was phenomenal to start the second half,” head coach Robbie Church said. “I almost started her in the game and probably should have. But she didn’t sulk, she didn’t lower her head, she just came in and did her job.”
Boade’s goal seemed to ignite her teammates, who continued to play aggressively, creating more opportunities deep in Cornhusker territory. Twice, a Blue Devil dribbling through traffic was fouled by Nebraska (3-3-1) which set up a pair of penalty kicks for sophomore Karlie Paschall, who successfully converted on both.
Despite a dominating second half for Duke (5-1-1), Church did not feel like his team played its best game Thursday.
“I think overall it was a little disappointing with how we came out,” Church said. “We’re nine games into the season...in this part of the season we need to be better at stringing halves together.”
With just one shot on goal and four shots overall in the first half, the Blue Devils did not come out strong to begin the game. Carelessness with the ball played a big role as Duke did not shoot as much as it would have liked. Despite multiple opportunities in the box, the Blue Devils could not get good shots off due to bad passes or poor touches.
This inactivity in the backfield opened up chances for Nebraska to attack Duke’s backline, which resulted in a pass into Duke’s goalie box followed by an overpowering header from Cornhusker forward Faith Carter. The shot got past redshirt sophomore Brooke Heinsohn as Nebraska’s only goal of the night. Going into the locker room at halftime, the Blue Devils needed to regroup in order to come out and dominate the way they did in the second period.
“The first half didn’t go how we wanted...morale was a bit low going back into the locker room,” Duke forward Kayla McCoy said. “We had a few players step up in the locker room and really get on us...it showed a lot of character the way we were able to get back out of it and come back on top.”
As a senior on a relatively inexperienced team, McCoy has had to take on a leadership role both on and off the field. McCoy set up the first goal with a nice pass to Boade, and was the player to get fouled for Duke’s first penalty kick after an attack on Nebraska’s backline.
“I kind of had to fix my mentality in the game to make sure I was getting involved,” McCoy said. “I think it was helpful that I had teammates getting on me...that really helped me in the second half to get involved in the play.”
This game was not the first in which Duke started out slow, but the Blue Devils seem to do a good job of picking up their pace as the matchup progresses. However, as they move into their conference circuit in two weeks, they have to figure out a way to begin with the same energy they've ended with.
Duke will have its final nonconference matchup this season against Old Dominion next Sunday evening at Koskinen Stadium.
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