Cooper, Duerr Lead No. 5 Duke Past WCU, 6-0

Thursday, August 26

Durham, N.C.

7 p.m.

Duke University

3-0-0, 0-0-0

Western Carolina

1-2-0, 0-0-0

Western Carolina

Duke

Cooper, Duerr Lead No. 5 Duke Past WCU, 6-0

8/26/2021 11:21:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score ROBBIE CHURCH POSTGAME DUERR & BURNELL POSTGAME

DURHAM – Freshman Michelle Cooper scored twice in the first half and junior Emmy Duerr netted two second-half goals to lead No. 5 Duke to a 6-0 win over Western Carolina on Thursday night at Koskinen Stadium.

Cooper's tallies came at the 22nd and 33rd minute marks as the Blue Devils took a 2-0 lead into halftime. Duke (3-0-0) found the back of the net four more times in the second half, with its final three goals coming over a seven-minute span.

Head coach Robbie Church deployed all 24 active players during the game, including each of the three goalkeepers. Junior Ruthie Jones picked up her third consecutive win, playing the entire first half and recording a save, while graduate student Maddie Nielsen got her first regular season action as a member of the Blue Devils when she started the second frame. Senior team captain Holly Stam played the final 11 minutes in net and made her second career save on a hard shot from outside the 18-yard box.

"I think the quality, the work rate and the commitment of that [second] group – we really saw that on display today," Church said. "That's the same thing we get every day in training from that group, and that's why this team has really improved over the last 12 to 15 months. Playing against a group that is of quality and is committed, and really going to make whoever is on the first group better – that's what they do every day in practice. I was really happy to see that out of them tonight, and they really got a reward with four goals in the second half."

Cooper opened the scoring with her third goal of the season at the 21:05 mark, when she and graduate student Tess Boade connected on a give-and-go play near the top of the box before she fired a right-footed shot past the diving Western Carolina goalkeeper. The Cooper-Boade combination struck again 11 minutes later on a similar play, as Boade set the dynamic freshman up for a left-footed strike that doubled the Duke advantage. Cooper finished the opening 45 minutes with seven shot attempts and three on target.

With nine different players in to start the second half, the Blue Devils wasted little time increasing their lead as senior Marykate McGuire netted her first of the season at the 49:50 mark. The ball corralled between multiple Catamount defenders and made its way to junior Julia Burnell, who extended her right foot to poke it through to a charging McGuire. The Portsmouth, R.I., native blasted her shot into the lower left corner to make it a 3-0 game.

Sophomore Grace Watkins gave Duke its fourth goal on a beautiful shot in the 59th minute. The ball was played quickly in the midfield and found Watkins alone nearly 25 yards out, and the sophomore sent a rocketed strike to the upper right corner.

Duerr followed quickly after with two goals in a four-minute stretch. In the 62nd minute, a Duke cross resulted in multiple players jostling for possession inside the goal box before Burnell found Duerr for a one-timer, marking the Cary, N.C., native's first goal since the 2019 NCAA Tournament. Her second tally came at the 65:10 mark on a high right-footed shot from just inside the box.

The Blue Devils finished with 30 shot attempts and 13 on goal, while their defensive unit held Western Carolina (1-2-0) to just two shots. The six goals mark the most for Duke since its 6-0 win over Coastal Carolina on March 17, 2021, while its 11 goals on the season are the most through three games since the 2016 campaign (13).

Duke faces its first road test of the season when it travels to Nashville, Tenn., to take on Vanderbilt on Sunday, Aug. 29 at 3 p.m. ET. The match will stream live on SEC Network+.

NOTES

The 2021 season marks the 21st at Duke for head coach Robbie Church, where he is now 259-131-59.
Duke's 3-0-0 record marks the 12th time in program history and the first occasion since 2011 that the Blue Devils opened a season with three consecutive wins.
Freshman Michelle Cooper and junior Emmy Duerr netted two goals each, marking the first time a pair of Blue Devils both scored twice in the same game since Oct. 13, 2019, when Marykate McGuire and Mackenzie Pluck did so in a 4-1 win over No. 9 Clemson.
Cooper becomes just the fourth player in program history to score in each of her first three career games and the first to do so since Casey McCluskey in 2001.
The last time Duerr recorded a goal was Nov. 15, 2019, when she had two in a 4-0 win over Utah in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
Junior Julia Burnell recorded two assists in her second career appearance for the Blue Devils. She and Tess Boade are the first Duke teammates to each record multiple assists in a game since Delaney Graham and Pluck (two each) against Coastal Carolina on March 17, 2021.
Sophomore Grace Watkins' goal in the 59th minute was the second of her career. Her first Duke tally came at UNCW on March 6, 2021.
Junior Bria Schrotenboer made her Duke debut, logging 62 minutes after coming on as the Blue Devils' first sub. A native of Holland, Mich., she spent two seasons at Michigan State before transferring to Duke this past offseason.
Freshman Kelly Wilson made her collegiate debut, playing 25 minutes in the second half.