DURHAM – The sixth-ranked Duke women's soccer team welcomed Georgia to Koskinen Stadium for an exhibition match Tuesday night and came away with a 2-0 victory through 90 minutes of regulation time.
The two teams played an additional 20 minutes after regulation, allowing Duke's entire roster to see action. The Blue Devils scored two more goals in the extra period which came just three minutes apart.
After a scoreless first half in which Duke fired six shots towards goal, the Blue Devils were able to find the net in the 64th minute when senior
Delaney Graham finished off a beautiful feed from freshman
Michelle Cooper. Cooper took a
Sophie Jones through ball up the left side and accelerated past a Georgia defender before crossing it to a wide open Graham inside the goal box.
Duke struck again in the 70th minute, as graduate student
Tess Boade found herself alone in the 18-yard box. The Highlands Ranch, Colo., native dribbled around Bulldogs goalkeeper Emory Wegener and fired a shot into the upper left corner of the net to double the Blue Devils' lead.
"We have a long ways to go, but it's August – it's a good start," head coach
Robbie Church said. "This is really a carryover from training. They've done great in training. Playing in meaningful games so deep into May and so late, we've been cautious about trying not to overwork them in preseason because we want legs too. We're trying to figure out – can we keep legs, can we keep people hungry, can we play with big numbers? So, we keep fresh because obviously the big time comes later in the season in November and December hopefully."
The Blue Devils finished regulation with 13 shots – five on goal – while Georgia had three of its six shot attempts on target. Junior
Ruthie Jones collected two saves in 62 minutes, while senior
Holly Stam played 27 minutes and made an impressive stop on a breakaway chance for Danielle Lewin.
In the extra 20-minute period, Duke controlled the majority of the play in the attacking third and netted another tally, this time from senior
Marykate McGuire. McGuire accepted a feed from classmate
Mackenzie Pluck and buried a left-footed strike into the lower left corner of the cage. Sophomore
Grace Watkins got in on the action at the 10-minute mark and scored on a similar shot with assists from McGuire and Pluck.
Duke will wrap up the preseason with a road exhibition at No. 7 Clemson on Friday, Aug. 13 with kickoff set for 6 p.m. The Blue Devils' regular season opener is Thursday, Aug. 19, when they host 13th-ranked Arkansas at Koskinen as part of the Carolina Nike Classic.
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