Duke Falls, 2-1, to Notre Dame in Heartbreaker

Thursday, September 21

Durham, N.C.

7 p.m.

Duke University

Notre Dame

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Duke Falls, 2-1, to Notre Dame in Heartbreaker

9/21/2023 10:06:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

DURHAM-- After leading for the first 85 minutes of the match, 16th-ranked Duke allowed two goals in a span of a minute and 33 seconds to fall, 2-1, to 10th-ranked Notre Dame on Thursday evening in ACC action at Koskinen Stadium.

Notre Dame registered goals in the 86th and 87th minutes off deflections to improve to 6-1-2, 2-0-0 on the season. The Blue Devils dropped to 5-3-0, 1-1-0.

How It Happened
•   After Notre Dame opened the match with a shot in the first minute that went wide, the Blue Devils came back in the eighth minute with a shot of their own. Sophomore Carina Lageyre found sophomore Kat Rader at the near post, but her left-footed attempt was right to Notre Dame keeper Atlee Olofson.
•   Duke was able to strike first on the scoreboard at the 13:55 mark. On a give-and-go, Rader found Lageyre and then Rader sprinted towards the near post where Lageyre placed a perfect ball to Rader. She took a couple of touches and finished into the bottom right corner of the goal from 10 yards.
•   Blue Devil sophomore Elle Piper lofted in a shot from distance in the 20th minute that hit the crossbar and the Irish cleared.
•   In the first half, both teams featured five shots each. Rader had a game-high three attempts.
•   Duke had the first opportunity of the second half as Piper got free at the top of the box and rocketed in a shot that went just wide of the far post in the 52nd minute.
•   Notre Dame went on to take six out of the next seven shot attempts, including a free kick from outside the box by Maddie Mercado that Blue Devil goalkeeper Leah Freeman was able to save with her right hand to knock the ball over the crossbar at the 70:59 mark.
•   Freeman made another outstanding save on a point-blank attempt from Morgan Roy in the 71st minute to keep the score 1-0 in favor of Duke.
•   The Blue Devil lineup became depleted with injuries late and the Irish were able to capitalize.
•   After peppering the Duke goal for most of the second half, Notre Dame got the equalizer at the 85:07 mark. Ellie Ospeck crossed in a ball from the endline that went off a Blue Devil, hit the post and settled at the feet of Kiki Van Zanten, who finished in the goal.
•   The Irish added a second goal less than two minutes later as Leah Klenke finished a clear from Duke inside the left post to give Notre Dame a 2-1 lead with less than four minutes remaining.

Notes
•   At the 4:02 mark of the first half, senior defender Emily Royson went off the field due to a lower body injury. She did not return. Junior defender Baleigh Bruster also left the match in the second half with an injury.
•   The goal by Kat Rader was her fifth of the season and all five goals have come at home. Rader owns 17 career goals over 31 matches.
•   Sophomore Carina Lageyre tallied her fourth assist of the season on Rader's goal.
•   Duke was outshot, 12-6, in the second half and 17-11 for the match. It marked only the second time this season the Blue Devils have been outshot.
•   It marked the second time this season Duke held a 1-0 lead in a match at home and ended up dropping the contest (Southern California).
•   Senior goalkeeper Leah Freeman finished with a season-high five saves over 90 minutes on the night.

Quotes
•   "Great, great soccer in the first half, absolutely fantastic soccer. Then we had to change our formation on the fly, put Cam [Roller] in there. We haven't worked with three center backs and I thought we did phenomenal with her. I thought they handled it great. In the second half, then Baleigh [Bruster] went out so we lost two out of our three starting backs and we were scrambling at that point. We took Katie Groff [and moved her to a back] and we lost a lot of ball-winning in midfield. So, the domino effect kind of went down. We didn't keep the ball, we gave the ball away. We didn't keep possession like we did in the first half." -- Duke head coach Robbie Church
•   "We were really, really good (in the first half), but we have to be able to close out games. We can't give balls away. Even when we were scrambling with our shape and our personnel in our shape, we still should have won the game." -- Duke head coach Robbie Church

Next Match
Duke remains at home for the next match as the Blue Devils host NC State on Sunday, Sept. 24 at 6 p.m., live on ACC Network Extra.

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