Completed Event: Women's Soccer versus #1 Stanford on December 5, 2025 , Loss , 0, to, 1
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Final
Women's Soccer
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vs #1 Stanford
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Photo by: Duke Athletics
Pitch Perfect
1/30/2021 3:16:00 PM | Women's Soccer
By Daniela Schneider, GoDuke The Magazine
DURHAM, N.C.-- Delaney Graham fell in love with singing with her performance in HONK!, the musical adaptation to "The Ugly Duckling" when she was in the fifth grade.
Musicals run in the Graham family. It started with Graham's parents and their love for musicals when they were younger. And as soon as their daughter was old enough to play a part in one herself, they introduced her to the art. Throughout the next several years in elementary and middle school, Graham continued with musicals and developed a passion for performing.
The Atlanta native put musicals aside in high school to focus on soccer, but continued with vocal lessons and even started doing a cappella in her sophomore year. And years later, that landed her a spot on Duke's award-winning female a cappella group, Lady Blue.
Graham didn't come to Duke with the idea of joining any sort of music group. Despite a little bit of nudging from her mom, Graham stuck to soccer for her first semester on campus. But during the spring semester, her teammate's friend, a member of Lady Blue, encouraged Graham to audition for the group.
With a demanding student-athlete schedule, a slate of rehearsals and performances with Lady Blue and a load of Duke classes, Graham had to find the balance between everything. She credits her fellow singers in Lady Blue for being so flexible and so willing to work around her schedule. For big performances, they always made sure there wasn't a conflict with a prime-time matchup in Koskinen.
"The girls are so accepting of the fact that I have other commitments," said Graham. "They're also super supportive of me, as an athlete, which is something that I wasn't necessarily expecting."
Lady Blue became a huge part of Graham's life not only because it allowed her to pursue her passion for music, but also because it became a way for her to find community outside of soccer. It's given her a chance to meet people outside of the athletic bubble, which is something Graham said wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for a cappella.
"Having people that are interested in something else that I'm interested in other than soccer is really amazing," said Graham. "And so they're kind of like an outlet for me when I need to get away from soccer sometimes."
The group still stayed close over the course of the past couple of months despite not being able to meet for rehearsals or performances. Lady Blue didn't get to hold their end-of-year concert, but instead they released their latest EP, Dandelion, on Spotify and Apple Music. Graham was the lead solo on the track "66 Days," which has nearly 3,000 streams on Spotify.
"I think having recorded the EP beforehand, it was a way we could be brought back together and also give a chance for everybody to hear our music"
Aside from her performances with her a cappella squad, Graham has also sang the national anthem at a Duke baseball game and performed "If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys at Duke STARS, the Student-Athlete Talent and Recognition Show, her freshman year.
Graham's all-star performances on stage also carry over to the field and classroom. The junior defender has started in all contests but one in her three seasons as a Blue Devil, and was named All-ACC second team in 2019 and 2020 after making the ACC All-Freshman team in 2018. She was also All-ACC Academic her freshman season.
In a season like no other, Graham displayed immense leadership on the field, playing both forward and defender this fall. She tallied two goals and one assist and also helped lead the Blue Devils to six shutouts.
Duke went 7-4-2 during the fall season, and will play another five games before the NCAA Tournament in the spring semester.
"I think we definitely learned this year that we are good enough to play with the best teams, even though our last game didn't go how we wanted it to," said Graham. "It just kind of showed me and our whole team that we can go out there and win the national championship this year."
#GoDuke
DURHAM, N.C.-- Delaney Graham fell in love with singing with her performance in HONK!, the musical adaptation to "The Ugly Duckling" when she was in the fifth grade.
Musicals run in the Graham family. It started with Graham's parents and their love for musicals when they were younger. And as soon as their daughter was old enough to play a part in one herself, they introduced her to the art. Throughout the next several years in elementary and middle school, Graham continued with musicals and developed a passion for performing.
The Atlanta native put musicals aside in high school to focus on soccer, but continued with vocal lessons and even started doing a cappella in her sophomore year. And years later, that landed her a spot on Duke's award-winning female a cappella group, Lady Blue.
Graham didn't come to Duke with the idea of joining any sort of music group. Despite a little bit of nudging from her mom, Graham stuck to soccer for her first semester on campus. But during the spring semester, her teammate's friend, a member of Lady Blue, encouraged Graham to audition for the group.
With a demanding student-athlete schedule, a slate of rehearsals and performances with Lady Blue and a load of Duke classes, Graham had to find the balance between everything. She credits her fellow singers in Lady Blue for being so flexible and so willing to work around her schedule. For big performances, they always made sure there wasn't a conflict with a prime-time matchup in Koskinen.
"The girls are so accepting of the fact that I have other commitments," said Graham. "They're also super supportive of me, as an athlete, which is something that I wasn't necessarily expecting."
Lady Blue became a huge part of Graham's life not only because it allowed her to pursue her passion for music, but also because it became a way for her to find community outside of soccer. It's given her a chance to meet people outside of the athletic bubble, which is something Graham said wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for a cappella.
"Having people that are interested in something else that I'm interested in other than soccer is really amazing," said Graham. "And so they're kind of like an outlet for me when I need to get away from soccer sometimes."
The group still stayed close over the course of the past couple of months despite not being able to meet for rehearsals or performances. Lady Blue didn't get to hold their end-of-year concert, but instead they released their latest EP, Dandelion, on Spotify and Apple Music. Graham was the lead solo on the track "66 Days," which has nearly 3,000 streams on Spotify.
"I think having recorded the EP beforehand, it was a way we could be brought back together and also give a chance for everybody to hear our music"
Aside from her performances with her a cappella squad, Graham has also sang the national anthem at a Duke baseball game and performed "If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys at Duke STARS, the Student-Athlete Talent and Recognition Show, her freshman year.
Graham's all-star performances on stage also carry over to the field and classroom. The junior defender has started in all contests but one in her three seasons as a Blue Devil, and was named All-ACC second team in 2019 and 2020 after making the ACC All-Freshman team in 2018. She was also All-ACC Academic her freshman season.
In a season like no other, Graham displayed immense leadership on the field, playing both forward and defender this fall. She tallied two goals and one assist and also helped lead the Blue Devils to six shutouts.
Duke went 7-4-2 during the fall season, and will play another five games before the NCAA Tournament in the spring semester.
"I think we definitely learned this year that we are good enough to play with the best teams, even though our last game didn't go how we wanted it to," said Graham. "It just kind of showed me and our whole team that we can go out there and win the national championship this year."
#GoDuke
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