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7 p.m.
Women's Soccer
at #5 Virginia
Friday, September 17
Chapel Hill, N.C.
7 p.m.
Duke University
at
North Carolina
No. 4 Duke, No. 2 North Carolina Clash Friday Night in Chapel Hill
9/16/2021 3:29:00 PM | Women's Soccer
Match 7
No. 4 Duke (6-0-0) vs. No. 2 North Carolina (7-0-0)
Friday, Sept. 17, 2021 | 7 p.m. | ACC Network Extra
Chapel Hill, N.C. – Dorrance Field
NEED TO KNOW
DUKE VS. NORTH CAROLINA
SCOUTING THE TAR HEELS
LAST TIME OUT: DUKE 5, EAST CAROLINA 0
DUKE ON THE ROAD
For more information on Duke women's soccer, follow the Blue Devils on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching 'DukeWSOC.'
#GoDuke
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No. 4 Duke (6-0-0) vs. No. 2 North Carolina (7-0-0)
Friday, Sept. 17, 2021 | 7 p.m. | ACC Network Extra
Chapel Hill, N.C. – Dorrance Field
NEED TO KNOW
- No. 4 Duke kicks off its ACC schedule with a top-5 road matchup as the Blue Devils make the short trip to Chapel Hill, N.C., for a date with No. 2 North Carolina on Friday, Sept. 17.
- The match is set for 7 p.m. and will stream live on ACC Network Extra with Matt Krause and Megan O'Keefe on the call.
- Duke's 6-0-0 start to the season marks the second time in program history and the first time under head coach Robbie Church that the Blue Devils won each of their first six matches.
- With their 5-0 win over East Carolina on Thursday, Sept. 9, the Blue Devils finished the non-conference schedule with zero losses and zero ties for the first time in program history.
- Freshman Michelle Cooper netted her sixth goal of the season in the ECU win, making her the first player in program history to score six goals over her first six career games.
- Cooper currently leads the ACC in shots per game (5.5) while ranking second in total shot attempts (33), tied for fourth in goals (6) and tied for sixth in points (14).
- Mackenzie Pluck has opened her senior campaign with four goals in six matches, marking the most goals in a six-game stretch for the North Wales, Pa., native since September of 2019.
- Graduate student Caitlin Cosme has scored in each of the last two games with both tallies coming off free kicks from outside the 18-yard box. The All-Atlantic Region defender also leads Duke with 484 minutes played this season.
- Junior goalkeeper Ruthie Jones has allowed just three goals on 31 shots faced this season and boasts an .812 save percentage.
- The 2021 campaign marks the 34th season in program history and the 21st in Durham for Church, where he has won 262 games and led the Blue Devils to three NCAA College Cup appearances.
- Duke is 13-13-7 all-time in ACC openers and has gone 4-0-4 in its last eight opening ACC games dating back to 2013.
DUKE VS. NORTH CAROLINA
- Friday's top-5 showdown will be the 49th time in program history that Duke faces North Carolina.
- The Blue Devils trail the all-time series, 3-42-3, and are looking for their first win in the Tobacco Road rivalry since Oct. 16, 2015 in Chapel Hill.
- The 2015 upset over the fifth-ranked Tar Heels saw Imani Dorsey score the match's only goal in the 44th minute as Duke earned a 1-0 road win.
- Duke's prior wins in the series came in 2005 and 1994, with both occurring in Chapel Hill.
- The Blue Devils are 2-21-3 against North Carolina under head coach Robbie Church.
- The Tar Heels earned a pair of shutout wins last season -- a 2-0 result at Koskinen Stadium on Sept. 27 and a 1-0 home victory at Dorrance Field on Oct. 23.
- Friday's match will feature two high-scoring offenses, as Duke's 3.33 goals per game ranks 17th in the nation while North Carolina's 3.29 ranks 20th.
- The Blue Devils' 49 all-time matchups with UNC are their most against any opponent in program history, with the next closest being 44 contests between Duke and Virginia.
SCOUTING THE TAR HEELS
- North Carolina enters Friday's match with a 7-0-0 record, sharing three common opponents with Duke.
- The Tar Heels swept the Carolina Nike Classic with a 4-1 win over Washington on Aug. 19 and a 1-0 overtime victory against Arkansas on Aug. 22. They also came away with a 2-1 win in overtime against Stanford on Sept. 5.
- UNC recorded three straight wins against the Big Ten, downing Illinois and Ohio State on the road before returning home to beat Northwestern on Sept. 2.
- North Carolina is coming off a dominant 7-1 performance at Florida on Sept. 9 in which five different Tar Heels found the back of the net.
- Three players pace the squad offensively with four goals apiece – freshman Emily Colton, senior Rachael Dorwart and freshman Emily Murphy, who will not play on Friday due to an injury.
- The Tar Heels boast seven players who have scored two or more goals this season.
- Senior Claudia Dickey has played every minute in goal this season for North Carolina, collecting 17 saves and a 0.56 goals against average in seven wins with three shutouts.
LAST TIME OUT: DUKE 5, EAST CAROLINA 0
- Duke closed out its non-conference schedule with a 5-0 win over East Carolina on Thursday, Sept. 9 to improve to 6-0-0 this season.
- It marked the first time in program history that the Blue Devils went through their non-conference slate with zero losses and zero ties.
- Senior Mackenzie Pluck got Duke on the board just 4:57 in with her fourth goal of the season. Pluck finished off a centering feed from sophomore Emily Royson, who was played a ball into the left side of the box from freshman Michelle Cooper.
- Cooper followed up with her sixth goal of the year shortly after, as she outraced the ECU defenders and chipped the ball past a charging goalkeeper in the eighth minute.
- Senior Marykate McGuire netted two goals for her third-career brace. She made it a 3-0 game late in the first half off a pass into the box by sophomore Grace Watkins and later headed home a corner by Watkins in the 88th minute.
- Graduate student Caitlin Cosme scored Duke's fourth goal on another impressive free kick from the top of the box, rocketing her attempt off the crossbar and in to extend the lead at the 42:35 mark.
- Junior Ruthie Jones earned the win in goal, playing the first 75 minutes and making two saves before she was subbed off for graduate transfer Maddie Nielsen.
- Freshman Dieynaba Ndaw made her regular season career debut, playing 11 minutes in the second half.
- With the win, Duke improved to 62-6-0 all-time against non-conference opponents from the state of North Carolina.
DUKE ON THE ROAD
- Duke heads to Chapel Hill looking to pick up its sixth win in its last seven road matches dating back to Nov. 1, 2020.
- The Blue Devils went 6-3-0 on the road last season, marking their most road victories since the 2017 campaign.
- Duke's lone road match this season was a 2-0 win against Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., on Sunday, Aug. 29.
- Each of Duke's three wins in the all-time series against North Carolina have come in Chapel Hill.
- The Blue Devils have outscored their opponents 11-4 with three shutouts over their last five road matches.
- The last time Duke opened ACC play on the road was the 2018 season, when the Blue Devils earned a 4-0 win at Syracuse on Sept. 16.
For more information on Duke women's soccer, follow the Blue Devils on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching 'DukeWSOC.'
#GoDuke
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Players Mentioned
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