Powers Nets Career-High 10 Saves In 0-0 Draw At No. 8 Virginia

Thursday, October 30

Charlottesville, Va.

7:00 p.m.

Duke University

12-3-3, 4-2-3ACC

Virginia

12-3-2, 6-2-1ACC

OT 1

OT 2

#16/17 Duke

#11/8 Virginia

Powers Nets Career-High 10 Saves In 0-0 Draw At No. 8 Virginia

10/30/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: Duke Sports Information

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. ? Senior goalkeeper Cassidy Powers registered a career-high 10 saves as the ninth-ranked Duke women's soccer team collected a 0-0 draw at eighth-ranked Virginia on Thursday evening in Charlottesville, Va.

With the draw, the Blue Devils move to 12-3-3 overall, 4-2-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), while the Cavaliers are 12-3-2, 6-2-1. Duke now owns 15 points in the ACC standings and is one point behind Boston College, who is in fourth place.

“I was very proud of the team,” said Duke Head Coach Robbie Church. “Virginia is a very tough place to play and they are very good. I thought we battled for 110 minutes and at times we played really well. We created some nice opportunities. I am extremely pleased to come up here and get a draw.”

In the first half, Virginia held a 7-3 shot advantage with the Cavaliers taking the first six attempts of the match over the first 18 minutes. Senior Kelly Hathorn fired Duke's first shot of the match at the 19:30 mark and fellow senior Christie McDonald sent the Blue Devils' final two attempts in the first stanza. Powers, who is from San Ramon, Calif., collected three saves in the first half.

Virginia came out on the attack in the second half once again as the Cavaliers attempted the first six shots. McDonald and junior KayAnne Gummersall went on to take Duke's three shots over the final 29 minutes of the second period.

Powers once again came up big in the second half as she netted five saves as the match moved to overtime.

In the overtime periods, Virginia outshot Duke 6-0 as the Cavaliers attempted two shots in the first overtime and four in the second. The Blue Devils had one of their best scoring chances of the match in the first overtime period as junior Elisabeth Redmond slipped through the Cavalier defense and touched the ball outside past a surging Virginia goalkeeper, Celeste Miles. Redmond, who had missed the last week of practice due to an injury, could not get an angle at the goal as she sent the ball back towards the top of the box where Miles grabbed it. Redmond started the game and played 88 minutes but was held without a shot.

“It was good to have Elisabeth back on the field,” said Church. “She added a spark offensively and gave us an emotional lift. She played a lot of minutes for a player who had not practiced all week.”

Virginia held a 22-6 shot advantage for the match and held Duke without a corner kick for the first time this season. McDonald finished the match with three shots and Gummersall two for the Blue Devils.

“All of our backs played well as we rotated a number of them in there,” said Church. “We defended well as a team; obviously holding Virginia to zero goals. We were a little bit inconsistent with our offensive attack -- we gave to many balls away and that caused a lot of our problems.”

Powers registered her seventh shutout of the season as she played the entire 110 minutes of action. Her 10 saves was a career high, which was four more than her previous high of six against Notre Dame and Dayton. As a team, Duke has notched 11 shutouts, which is tied for the second-most in school history. The school record is 12 from the 2004 campaign.

“Cassidy played the best game that I have seen her play at Duke University,” said Church. “She made three really big saves, especially one early.”

Duke will return to the state of Virginia on Sunday, Nov. 2 as the Blue Devils will close out the regular season at Virginia Tech at 2:00 p.m.

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