Looking Back at Top-5 Victory in Chapel Hill

The No. 4 Duke women's soccer team earned a hard-fought 1-0 win at No. 2 North Carolina on Friday, Sept. 17 in Chapel Hill, N.C. Take a look back at the moments that created a memorable Friday night for Robbie Church and the Blue Devils.

30 minutes until go time??

??????? https://t.co/OwvNnq0wLa #GoDuke #OurBlueIsBest pic.twitter.com/JknNVcPSlu
— Duke Women's Soccer (@DukeWSOC) September 17, 2021

The eyes of the women's soccer world were on Dorrance Field as the fourth-ranked Blue Devils looked to pick up their first win over rival North Carolina since October of 2015. Duke rolled out the same starting lineup it used in its season-opening win over Arkansas on Aug. 19.

21' | HUGE SAVE FROM @rjones1210 ????????

???? 0, ?? 0#GoDuke pic.twitter.com/nr4NaK63HY
— Duke Women's Soccer (@DukeWSOC) September 17, 2021

North Carolina fired six shots in the opening 22 minutes with three on goal. Junior Ruthie Jones came up huge, stopping all three with the most crucial being a header off a corner kick at the 20:38 mark.

HALF | Scoreless after 45' in Chapel Hill

???? 0, ?? 0#GoDuke pic.twitter.com/4tDnpx9O15
— Duke Women's Soccer (@DukeWSOC) September 17, 2021

The two teams went into the break knotted at 0-0. The Tar Heels recorded seven shot attempts to Duke's two, but the Blue Devils were able to maintain possession in the final five minutes and quieted the sellout crowd of 5,301.

“Early on, they got us on our back foot, but we weathered that and it wasn’t that dangerous except for the corner kick that they had. I thought a lot of our players were a little nervous early, and we kicked a lot of balls and didn’t possess the way we wanted to. At the end of the first half, once we started getting possession, you could feel the air go out of the stadium. It got really quiet in here when we were possessing the ball.”

Robbie Church

The Blue Devils finally broke through in the 55th minute, when Mackenzie Pluck sent a through ball up the left side for a sprinting Olivia Migli. Migli dribbled towards the top of the 18-yard box and played one in for sharpshooter Michelle Cooper, but the freshman found herself at a tough angle to go for goal. Without looking, she dished a beautiful crossing pass to the middle for Tess Boade, who was already behind the UNC back line and drilled a left-footed shot into the bottom right corner of the net.

84’ | Corner kick almost gets us another chance to go up by ?? with a shot from Katie Groff

???? 1, ?? 0#GoDuke pic.twitter.com/GdOiER8hQm
— Duke Women's Soccer (@DukeWSOC) September 18, 2021

The final 30 minutes saw chances for each side, with Duke finding multiple golden opportunities to double the lead. Caitlin Cosme had a free kick from 25 yards out that was sent over the net, minutes before Grace Watkins had a one-on-one look against goalkeeper Claudia Dickey but directed her shot wide right. On the back line, the Blue Devils bent but never broke as North Carolina threw everything it had in trying to get the equalizer.

“In the second half, we knew the five in the back needed to lock in. When it’s a tight game like that, it comes back to the tiny details – one bad touch, one missed pass, one bad clearance. I brought us together a couple times, because there were a couple shaky moments where they got into our box and I was like, ‘I don’t care what we do, we just need to get it off the field and then we can regroup.’ I’m so proud of my defense. I’m so proud of Ruthie Jones – she was big time today.”

Caitlin Cosme

When the final seconds ticked off the clock, the Blue Devils poured onto the field in celebration of their top-5 win over the rival Tar Heels. It marked the fifth win in program history over an opponent ranked in the top two of the United Soccer Coaches national poll. Duke also held North Carolina scoreless for the first time in the Tar Heels' last 28 matches dating back to December of 2019.

The Blue Devils improved to 7-0-0 on the season and 1-0-0 in ACC play. This marks the second time in program history that Duke opened a season with seven straight wins. Robbie Church's side has also won six of its last seven road matches dating back to Nov. 1, 2020.

It's a great win for our program. [North Carolina] sets the standard and for us, who is continuing to grow and have a good program, we need to get into that next level, that elite level. Beating a Stanford and a Carolina in the same month is really big for us."

Robbie Church