Completed Event: Women's Soccer versus #1 Stanford on December 5, 2025 , Loss , 0, to, 1
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Women's Soccer Earns NCAA Bid; Will Play Rutgers On Friday
11/9/2009 9:00:00 PM | Women's Soccer
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DURHAM, N.C. - For the 16th time in school history and the seventh straight year, the Duke women's soccer team received an at-large invitation to play in the NCAA Tournament on Monday and will travel to Columbia, S.C., for a subregional against 23rd-ranked Rutgers on Friday, Nov. 13.
Duke will face Rutgers (13-3-4) in the first round at 4:30 p.m., on Friday, while eighth-ranked South Carolina (17-3-2) and Davidson (12-9-1) will battle at 7:00 p.m. The second round match will take place on Sunday, Nov. 15. All three matches will be played at Eugene E. Stone III Stadium in Columbia, S.C.
"As I told the team, this is the eighth NCAA Tournament [bid] since we have been here," said Duke Head Coach Robbie Church. "This is probably the most excited I have been about it because it hasn't been an easy season. It started in preseason with injuries right before [we started]. We have done a lot of different things this year. We have changed our formation, changed players in our formation -- it took us a while to really find who we are."
The Blue Devils own an 8-8-4 overall record and totaled a 4-4-2 mark in the very challenging Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Duke is coming off falling in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament, 2-0, to third-ranked Florida State. On the season, the Blue Devils have been led on the scoring end by KayAnne Gummersall (11 goals, 4 assists), Elisabeth Redmond (3 goals, 12 assists), Cody Newman (2 goals, 9 assists).
"Now we are playing in the National Championship Tournament," said Church. "This is what it is all about. We are all 0-0 at this point and you just play one game at a time. You try to survive and advance. This is important for our program as you obviously want to keep the NCAA streak alive. We have five freshmen that start -- we are going to give them some experience in the tournament and we have four seniors who have done so, so much for our program and have taken us to new levels. To be able to play another game with that group of players and all of us together is just really, really special. I am thrilled for this team."
Duke's defense has been stellar allowing only 20 goals in 20 matches, including nine shutouts. Freshman goalkeeper Tara Campbell has posted six shutouts and a 1.03 goals-against average in 18 starts. Her 92 saves on the season is one shy of matching the Duke single-season record of 93.
The Blue Devils are coming off registering back-to-back NCAA Elite Eight appearances for the first time in school history.
"We knew we would have a tough team and Rutgers is a fantastic team," commented Church. "They have a great history and are very well coached. We have a lot of respect for their program."
Rutgers owns a 13-3-4 overall record and is coming off falling in the Big East Tournament to West Virginia, 1-0. Under the direction of 10-year Head Coach Glenn Crooks, Rutgers is coming off making a run to the NCAA Sweet 16 a year ago and will be making their sixth overall appearance in the NCAA Tournament and the third over the past four years.
Duke and Rutgers will meet for the fourth time in school history and the first time since 1998, which was a 2-0 Blue Devil victory in the UConn Classic in Storrs, Conn. The Blue Devils lead the overall series, 3-0. The Scarlet Knights feature a roster which is familiar to the Blue Devils as Duke freshman Callie Simpkins' sister is a redshirt freshman on the team, while several other members of the Rutgers team played club soccer with Duke student-athletes.
"All the teams in our draw are great teams, but I couldn't be happier with our draw," said Gummersall. "We have made it to the Elite Eight the past two years and I think that we definitely want more and definitely can achieve that. So everybody is going to be really excited. It is nice knowing that just practicing these next two days we are practicing toward something. Everybody is really excited."
The NCAA Division I College Cup will be played Dec. 4, 6 at the Aggie Soccer Stadium in College Station, Texas. The four No. 1 seeds include Stanford University, an automatic qualifier from the Pacific-10 Conference, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, an automatic qualifier from the Atlantic Coast Conference, University of California, Los Angeles from the Pacific-10 and Florida State University from the Atlantic Coast.
The Atlantic Coast and Pacific-10 lead all conferences with eight teams in the tournament. Seven teams will represent the Big East Conference. Six teams enter the tournament from the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten Conference will be represented by five teams. Thirty conferences were granted automatic bids for the 2009 championship. The remaining 34 teams were selected at-large.
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