No. 8 Duke Falls, 3-0, To No. 2 North Carolina In Women?s Soccer

Thursday, October 2

Durham, N.C.

8:00 p.m.

Duke University

9-2-1, 1-1-1ACC

North Carolina

10-1-1, 3-0ACC

#6/2 North Carolina

#9/9 Duke

No. 8 Duke Falls, 3-0, To No. 2 North Carolina In Women?s Soccer

10/2/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. ? In a showdown of top 10 ranked teams on Thursday night, the second-ranked North Carolina women's soccer team registered a 3-0 victory over ninth-ranked Duke at Koskinen Stadium in Durham, N.C.

“Carolina has a great team,” said Duke Head Coach Robbie Church. “'I'm very, very proud of our team. I thought we battled, we played hard. The speed of play was incredible out there tonight. Its just a different level. Its hard to emulate that in practice. They come at you in numbers and in waves. We struggled connecting passes, we struggled going forward.”

With the victory, the Tar Heels improved to 10-1-1 overall and 3-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) action, while the Blue Devils fell to 9-2-1 and 1-1-1. Thursday marked a very special night at Koskinen Stadium as Duke senior Sheila Kramer led a fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which gave all proceeds of tonight's contest to the foundation. The contest featured a season high crowd of 1,164 fans.

“I heard some things from the locker room [during halftime] and it just gave me goose bumps and chills hearing the cheers from the kids out there,” said Kramer. “It's really inspiring to be out on the field and playing for them [the kids] and letting them come out here. This whole thing has kind of been about them and to see them go out and live normal lives and work so hard is just really inspiring I'm so thrilled that we were able to do this. The support of the Duke staff and my team and just everyone coming out, it was amazing.”

North Carolina jumped on the attack quick and often in the first half and the Tar Heels took the early lead after a flurry of shots at the Blue Devil net. In the fourth minute, Nikki Washington fired a rocket that Duke senior goalkeeper Cassidy Powers saved. North Carolina was not done as Jessica McDonald then sent a shot towards the goal that Blue Devil defender Christie McDonald saved, but Courtney Jones from the Tar Heels took the rebound and found the top left corner of the Duke goal to take a 1-0 lead.

The goal allowed by the Blue Devils was the first of the season at home and broke a streak of 654:28 minutes without allowing a goal at home this season. North Carolina's first half goal was also only the third scored on Duke in the first stanza this season.

“We've been in a similar situation two times in our season already and I think we have learned from that so we were ready,” said freshman Ashley Rape on allowing the early goal. “I don't think it got us down. I think we came right back out on them and there were times where we very easily could've given up and it would've been a very different game so I don't think it really deflated us too much. I think we always are looking to improve and we're going into practice this next week breaking down the game, looking at things we can do better and we just want to bring the best we can every game which is what we look to do on Friday.”

North Carolina stayed on the attack for the entire first half with Duke only attempting two shots over the first 45 minutes off the legs of sophomore Gretchen Miller and Kramer. The Tar Heels held a 9-2 shot advantage in the first stanza.

“For me it's very exciting, it's a huge rivalry and I thought we did our best, everyone played their butt off out there and that's all we can ask for,” said Marybeth Kreger. “We were all hyped up for the game and we did all we could. We played well. I think we kept the pressure up as well as we could of the whole game, nobody let down which was all we could ask for. I would've liked to see us get forward more, I felt like we were on the defensive side most of the game but we didn't really focus on our attack as much as we could have.”

Duke came out in the second half and outshot North Carolina 7-6, but couldn't manage to get a goal past the very tough Tar Heel defense. Ashlyn Harris and Anna Rodenbough finished the night with one save between the two of them over the 90 minutes.

“We just talked about it in the second half, let's just go for it,” said Church. “Let's get back to our game and just go for it. I think we did a much better job connecting passes and getting more numbers and more people forward, and if we had netted one of those who knows what would've happened. They're a great team, if you make a mistake they will punish you, and that's what they did. That's why they're where they are. We're still chasing them. We're not alone but we're not far away.”

North Carolina added goals in the 70th and 88th minutes by Casey Nogueira as the Blue Devils tried to push forward, which increased the Tar Heel lead to 3-0.

The final margin of shots were 15-9 in favor of the Tar Heels, while UNC held a 7-4 lead in corner kicks. Blue Devil junior Elisabeth Redmond led Duke with four shot attempts, while second-leading scorer KayAnne Gummersall was held without a shot.

In goal for the Blue Devils, senior Cassidy Powers notched three saves over 90 minutes of play. Prior to the match, Powers had posted three straight shutouts.

Duke will next host 16th-ranked Wake Forest on Thursday, Oct. 9 at 7:00 p.m. The Blue Devils have only two more home matches remaining in the regular season as Duke will host Clemson on Sunday, Oct. 26 for senior day.

“It was a very emotional night for her,” commented Church on Sheila Kramer. “She was playing really well. Her family's here and she played terrifically. We've got a lot of different starters, and when one starts playing better than the other one we just kind of went with her and she was playing great. I'm just very proud of her and what she's done to organize this [fundraiser]. She gave a lot of credit to other people but she's the one that did it. She organized this, came up with the idea, marketing, met with the people, it was just fantastic and shows the types of young ladies we have on our team, we're very fortunate.”

With the victory, North Carolina received one point for the Carlyle Cup, which is a year-long competition between Duke and North Carolina. The Tar Heels lead so far in 2008-09, 2-0.

-d-u-k-e-