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Women's Soccer
vs Alabama
Thursday, August 17
Durham, N.C.
7 p.m.
Duke University
1-0-0, 0-0-0
2
vs
0
West Virginia
0-1-0, 0-0-0
1
2
F
West Virginia
0
0
0
Duke
1
1
2
Photo by: Duke Athletics
No. 4 Blue Devils Defeat WVU, 2-0; Earns Program Win No. 450
8/17/2023 10:21:00 PM | Women's Soccer
DURHAM – Fourth-ranked Duke women's soccer opened the 2023 campaign Thursday evening at Koskinen Stadium with a 2-0 victory over West Virginia. The win for the Blue Devils marked the 450th in program history.
Duke sophomore Kat Rader and senior Katie Groff tallied goals, while senior transfer Leah Freeman posted her 19th career shutout and first as a Blue Devil.
How It Happened
• West Virginia attempted the first shot of the match by Dilary Heredia-Beltran at the 3:55 mark that went off the right post and the Blue Devils were able to clear.
• Duke started to push forward and after a shot by Kat Rader that went high, Rader grabbed the ball outside the box in the 11th minute and drove towards the middle of the pitch and blasted a right-footed shot from 25 yards that hit the top right corner of the net to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead.
• Rader finished with a total of four first-half shots and Duke held a 6-2 shot advantage at the break.
• West Virginia came out in the second half and took four out of the first five shots, but Blue Devil goalkeeper Leah Freeman saved a pair of attempts.
• In its first dangerous scoring attempt of the second half, Duke made it count. Sophomore Devin Lynch sent in a corner from the right side, which landed at the feet of senior Katie Groff in front of the goal. Groff placed it inside the top of the net for her fifth career goal to give Duke a 2-0 lead.
• The Mountaineers hit woodwork one other time in the 85th minute as Heredia-Beltran hit the crossbar.
• For the match, Duke held a 12-8 shot advantage.
Notes
• Senior transfer Leah Freeman started in goal for the Blue Devils. She totaled one save in the first half and finished the match with three saves.
• Duke improved to 10-0-1 when Kat Rader scores, since arriving in Durham a season ago.
• The goal for Rader was her 13th as a Blue Devil and sixth game-winning tally.
• The Blue Devils have now won six straight season openers and eight out of the last nine.
• Duke moved to 16-0 all-time when opening the season at home and has outscored opponents 57-5 in that stretch.
• In the series with West Virginia, Duke evened the ledger at 3-3-1 and is now 2-0-1 in matches played at home.
• The Blue Devils won their seventh straight match at home in Koskinen Stadium and is 58-10-7 over the last seven seasons at home.
• Duke collected its 35th shutout over the last four seasons. It marks the third straight year the Blue Devils opened the season with a shutout.
Quotes
"I thought there was a lot of really good stuff. We saw they were pushing a lot of players high, and they were trying to take away our build. Leah [Freeman] did a really good job in decision-making, being able to play over the build too. I thought for the most part, the first half we really controlled the game, unfortunately we didn't score a couple more goals, we had some opportunities. But I thought overall, the beginning of the second half, they had a little bit more control of the game. I thought we weathered the storm, started to build, draw them in, and then find our free player and at that point, we were able to turn and really attack them. There's a lot of things out there that we can work on. We've got to be more clinical in the final third, but a lot of things we really like." – Duke head coach Robbie Church
"I really want to give a shoutout to Baleigh Bruster and Carina [Lageyre], two players that didn't play for us last year. Baleigh for the last two years has been injured and Carina was very, very good. Those players have worked extremely hard during the offseason to get themselves back on the field with us." – Duke head coach Robbie Church
"What a great goal. I had a great view of it. What an absolutely great goal. What a banger that was. It was an outstanding goal." – Duke head coach Robbie Church on Kat Rader's goal
"I think we had a bit of a nervous start, first game nerves, and I think we just found our bravery. I just wanted to attack the left side, that's something we've worked on a lot in training, the transition moments for me to get the ball at my feet wide and just run at the outside back and I just felt like I was one-v-one with her, cut inside and hit it with my right foot and it ended up going upper 90, but wasn't really trying, I was just trying to put it on frame." – Duke sophomore Kat Rader on her goal
Next Match
Duke has the weekend off, before hosting No. 22 Southern California on Thursday, Aug. 24 at 7 p.m. It will mark the second match of a three-game homestand for the Blue Devils.
To stay up to date with Blue Devils women's soccer, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeWSOC".
#GoDuke
Duke sophomore Kat Rader and senior Katie Groff tallied goals, while senior transfer Leah Freeman posted her 19th career shutout and first as a Blue Devil.
How It Happened
• West Virginia attempted the first shot of the match by Dilary Heredia-Beltran at the 3:55 mark that went off the right post and the Blue Devils were able to clear.
• Duke started to push forward and after a shot by Kat Rader that went high, Rader grabbed the ball outside the box in the 11th minute and drove towards the middle of the pitch and blasted a right-footed shot from 25 yards that hit the top right corner of the net to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead.
• Rader finished with a total of four first-half shots and Duke held a 6-2 shot advantage at the break.
• West Virginia came out in the second half and took four out of the first five shots, but Blue Devil goalkeeper Leah Freeman saved a pair of attempts.
• In its first dangerous scoring attempt of the second half, Duke made it count. Sophomore Devin Lynch sent in a corner from the right side, which landed at the feet of senior Katie Groff in front of the goal. Groff placed it inside the top of the net for her fifth career goal to give Duke a 2-0 lead.
• The Mountaineers hit woodwork one other time in the 85th minute as Heredia-Beltran hit the crossbar.
• For the match, Duke held a 12-8 shot advantage.
Notes
• Senior transfer Leah Freeman started in goal for the Blue Devils. She totaled one save in the first half and finished the match with three saves.
• Duke improved to 10-0-1 when Kat Rader scores, since arriving in Durham a season ago.
• The goal for Rader was her 13th as a Blue Devil and sixth game-winning tally.
• The Blue Devils have now won six straight season openers and eight out of the last nine.
• Duke moved to 16-0 all-time when opening the season at home and has outscored opponents 57-5 in that stretch.
• In the series with West Virginia, Duke evened the ledger at 3-3-1 and is now 2-0-1 in matches played at home.
• The Blue Devils won their seventh straight match at home in Koskinen Stadium and is 58-10-7 over the last seven seasons at home.
• Duke collected its 35th shutout over the last four seasons. It marks the third straight year the Blue Devils opened the season with a shutout.
Quotes
"I thought there was a lot of really good stuff. We saw they were pushing a lot of players high, and they were trying to take away our build. Leah [Freeman] did a really good job in decision-making, being able to play over the build too. I thought for the most part, the first half we really controlled the game, unfortunately we didn't score a couple more goals, we had some opportunities. But I thought overall, the beginning of the second half, they had a little bit more control of the game. I thought we weathered the storm, started to build, draw them in, and then find our free player and at that point, we were able to turn and really attack them. There's a lot of things out there that we can work on. We've got to be more clinical in the final third, but a lot of things we really like." – Duke head coach Robbie Church
"I really want to give a shoutout to Baleigh Bruster and Carina [Lageyre], two players that didn't play for us last year. Baleigh for the last two years has been injured and Carina was very, very good. Those players have worked extremely hard during the offseason to get themselves back on the field with us." – Duke head coach Robbie Church
"What a great goal. I had a great view of it. What an absolutely great goal. What a banger that was. It was an outstanding goal." – Duke head coach Robbie Church on Kat Rader's goal
"I think we had a bit of a nervous start, first game nerves, and I think we just found our bravery. I just wanted to attack the left side, that's something we've worked on a lot in training, the transition moments for me to get the ball at my feet wide and just run at the outside back and I just felt like I was one-v-one with her, cut inside and hit it with my right foot and it ended up going upper 90, but wasn't really trying, I was just trying to put it on frame." – Duke sophomore Kat Rader on her goal
Next Match
Duke has the weekend off, before hosting No. 22 Southern California on Thursday, Aug. 24 at 7 p.m. It will mark the second match of a three-game homestand for the Blue Devils.
To stay up to date with Blue Devils women's soccer, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeWSOC".
#GoDuke
Team Stats
WVU
DUKE
Goals
0
2
Shots
8
12
Shots on Goal
3
5
Saves
3
3
Corners
4
4
Fouls
6
8
Scoring Plays
Kat Rader (1)
GOAL by DUKE Rader, Kat.
10:39
Katie Groff (1)
Assisted By: Devin Lynch
GOAL by DUKE Groff, Katie Assist by Lynch, Devin.
69:57
Game Leaders
Players
Shots
1
SOG
1
Goals
1
Assists
0
mid
Shots
0
SOG
0
Goals
0
Assists
1
Shots
3
SOG
2
Goals
0
Assists
0
Players Mentioned
D
/ Women's SoccerGK
/ Women's SoccerM
/ Women's SoccerF/M
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