Watkins, Rader Score to Push No. 4 Duke Past Wisconsin, 2-1

Sunday, August 27

Durham, N.C.

12 p.m.

Duke University

2-1-0, 0-0-0

Wisconsin

1-1-2, 0-0-0

Wisconsin

Duke

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Watkins, Rader Score to Push No. 4 Duke Past Wisconsin, 2-1

8/27/2023 4:10:00 PM | Women's Soccer

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DURHAM – Senior Grace Watkins and sophomore Kat Rader each scored Sunday afternoon to push No. 4 Duke past Wisconsin, 2-1, at Koskinen Stadium. The Blue Devils moved to 2-1-0 on the year, while Wisconsin dropped to 1-1-2.

Wisconsin had not allowed a goal through the first three matches, before Duke tallied two on the afternoon. Rader, a native of Stuart, Fla., became the sixth Blue Devil to score goals in the first three matches to open the season.

How It Happened
•   Wisconsin featured the first dangerous scoring opportunity in the first half as Izzy Verdugo picked the ball away from a Duke defender and raced towards the Blue Devil goal. Duke goalkeeper Leah Freeman backpedaled quickly and was able to make a diving stop to her right on Verdugo's shot attempt.
•   Duke took advantage of its first true scoring chance at the 18:18 mark. After Carina Lageyre drove the ball in the box, Wisconsin tried to clear, but went to the feet of senior Grace Watkins. Watkins took two little touches and hit the top right corner of the net to put the Blue Devils ahead, 1-0.
•   For the first half, Duke held a 5-1 shot advantage.
•   The Blue Devils attempted the first three shots of the second half off the legs of Mia Minestrella, Devin Lynch and Watkins.
•   At the 59:27 mark, Lynch found sophomore Elle Piper, who basted a right-footed attempt from outside the box that was heading towards the goal, but Wisconsin's goalkeeper Erin McKinney tipped the ball over the crossbar for a corner kick.
•   After being held without a shot for most of the match, Duke sophomore Kat Rader made her first attempt count. After feeds from Lageyre and Minestrella, Rader cut left, beat a defender and finished near post to give the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead.
•   Wisconsin added a goal with less than five minutes to play from Riley Philbin.
•   For the match, Duke held a 13-3 advantage in shots.

Notes
•   Grace Watkins netted her first goal of the season and fifth of her career. She has scored at least one goal in each of her four seasons.
•   Freshman Phoebe Goldthwaite made her Duke debut in the first half playing a total of 24 minutes in the match.
•   The Blue Devils have scored a goal in the first half in each of the first three matches.
•   Duke moved to 11-1-1 when Kat Rader scores, since she arrived in Durham.
•   The goal for Rader was her 15th as a Blue Devil and third of the season. She now owns seven career game-winning goals.
•   Carina Lageyre registered assists in back-to-back matches, while Mia Minestrella posted her first collegiate assist.
•   Rader joins only Michelle Cooper, Kristy Whelchel, Kelly Walbert, Caitlin Connelly and Heidi Mauger as Duke players to score in the first three matches to open the season.
•   Leah Freeman played the full 90 minutes and registered one save for the Blue Devils.

Quotes
"We were extremely happy with our performance today. Great goals – both of the goals were really big-time goals. We caught them in transition when they were pushing up. They are a hard team to play. They get a lot of numbers behind the ball. As you said, they had not given up a goal and they play really hard. Wisconsin is a good team. That is going to come back at the end of the year to be a really good win for us. They are going to win a lot of games."   – Duke head coach Robbie Church

"Well, I was deciding if I wanted to take her one-v-one, but I saw a little window that she was allowing me to shoot. So, I decided to take it and lucky it went in." – Duke senior Grace Watkins

"I remember Mia [Minestrella] got the ball, did a great job holding it up, which is big-time for us. I thought she had a great game. [Mia] played it out to Carina [Lageyre] and Carina found me. I found myself one-v-one in an area I love to attack from. I just cut into my right foot, found a little window near post. I feel like normally there I have been going far post and so I wanted to try a different shot and it went in." – Duke sophomore Kat Rader

Next Match
Duke hits the road for a contest at No. 6 Stanford on Saturday, Sept. 2 at 10 p.m. (ET). The match will be aired live on Pac-12 Insider.

To stay up to date with Blue Devils women's soccer, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeWSOC".

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