NCAA Quarterfinals Bound: No. 1 Duke Nets 2-0 Win Against No. 16 MSU to Advance

Sunday, November 24

Durham, N.C.

Duke University

17-2-1, 9-0-1

Michigan State

14-3-5, 7-1-3

Michigan St.

Duke

Photo by: Duke Athletics

NCAA Quarterfinals Bound: No. 1 Duke Nets 2-0 Win Against No. 16 MSU to Advance

11/24/2024 9:37:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Photo Gallery Lageyre, Church & Groff Interview

DURHAM, N.C. – For the 10th time over the last 14 years, the Duke women's soccer team has advanced to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals as the top-seeded Blue Devils registered a 2-0 victory over 16th-ranked Michigan State on Sunday evening inside Koskinen Stadium in Durham.

Duke collected its third-straight shutout in NCAA play to move on, while junior Carina Lageyre and junior Devin Lynch posted goals on the night. The Blue Devils set a new school record with 212 points and 78 assists in a season, while matching the program record for goals in a season with 67.

Up next for Duke (17-2-1) will be the NCAA quarterfinals on Saturday, Nov. 30 at 6 p.m., in Durham versus seventh-seeded Virginia Tech.

How It Happened

Duke's defense was solid in the first half and the Blue Devils had a number of shot attempts, but none too dangerous.
With about five minutes remaining in the half, Mia Oliaro fed a cross in from the right side and freshman Mary Long one-timed it with her right foot.The shot went off the left post and right to the goalkeeper.
The Blue Devils kept putting pressure on the Spartans' goal and came through at the 42:01 mark.Graduate student Maggie Graham sent a pass on the right side to Long, who crossed in a ball to the head of fifth year Ella Hase.Hase headed to a wide-open junior Carina Lageyre, who took a couple of touches and fired a shot into the far right corner to give Duke a 1-0 lead.
Duke limited Michigan State to only one shot attempt in the first half, which was blocked.The Blue Devils had 14 shots, with two each by Long, Hannah Bebar, Cameron Roller and Devin Lynch.
The Blue Devils doubled their lead early in the second half as Oliaro fired a left-footed shot at the goal that was saved, but Lynch was there for the rebound to give Duke a 2-0 lead at the 53:37 mark.A product of Naperville, Ill., Lynch posted her seventh goal of the season and first in NCAA Tournament play.
Duke nearly added another in the 55th minute as Bebar found a streaking Hase, but her attempt went just right of the far post.
The Blue Devils dominated possession and held a 29-3 shot advantage.A total of 10 Duke players attempted shots, led by a season-high six by Hase.

Notes

With seven points on the night, Duke set a new program record with 212 on the season.The Blue Devils also registered a school record for assists on the season with 78.
Duke scored a goal in the first half for the 18th time out of 20 matches this season, including eight straight.
The goal by Carina Lageyre was her second of the season and fourth of her collegiate career.She scored in just her second NCAA Tournament contest.
Mia Oliaro has now scored or assisted in 12 out of the last 13 contests.
In the first three matches of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, Duke has scored 13 goals and had seven different goal scorers.
Duke improved to 31-3-1 in NCAA Tournament play in Durham and 6-0-1 in the round of 16 matches in Durham.
The Blue Devils reached 17 wins on the year, which is tied for the third-most under head coach Robbie Church.
Duke moved to 11-0-1 at home in 2024.
Both Ella Hase and Oliaro collected their team-best 13th assist on the season.
The Blue Devils notched three straight shutouts to open NCAA play for the third time in Duke history (2017, 1992).

Quotes

"I think that starts from our front line. We don't talk about defending the goal that much, we talk about defending the halfway line and probably communicating. I was yelling out there, same with everyone else in the back line, and so we just try to be disciplined and organized. You know, sometimes there's a time for last ditch defending, but we like to eliminate everything else leading up to that. We don't like them to get rhythm crosses shots. We want to protect our goal and protect our keeper. So, I think we just throughout the back line, midfield, forward, we each are doing everything we can to keep it in their end, and we also kind of try to defend with the ball. I don't really see the stats, but I feel like we try to possess and possess in their half, so as long as we have the ball, they can't be threatening near us. So that's, that's kind of the main goal."-- Duke fifth year Katie Groff on the defense tonight
"Yeah, we make the joke that the fifth years and seniors are retiring with Robbie, but there is something special about so many of us knowing it's our last time getting a chance at this. Because already, there's so much at stake, and you're going to leave it all out there, but knowing that it could really be the last time you're in a competition like this, you want to not only go 110% but you'll dig deeper and find even more. And I feel that from not only all the fifth years, seniors, our coaching staff, but even freshmen who know that they could have three more go rounds at this like they've bought in the way everyone else has that like we're going to give our all to this tournament, and we take it one game at a time."-- Duke fifth year Katie Groff on the possibility of this being Robbie Church's and her last game each time stepping on field
First of all, I'd like to congratulate Michigan State on a heck of a year -- a really, really good team. Jeff [Hosler] and his staff have done an unbelievable job in a very short time of turning that Michigan State program around. They're going to be a power for years and years to come, so a great year for them. I thought we were really good tonight. I didn't know how we'd handle the turnaround, because it's the shortest turnaround of the year. I'm not quite sure why we have to play Friday and Sunday. Can I -- since I'm going out the door -- can I lobby for playing on Thursday and giving us two days' rest? That's past my pay grade. But I didn't know how we would react to that, and we could not have reacted better. I thought that the girls did a great job and that our training staff did a great job with recovery with our players in that period yesterday. The coaches did a really good job of preparing them, and the players also did their part with recovery and getting ready for the game. We're a really mentally tough team, and we're a gritty team, and I think you saw a lot of that out there today with how we played on such a quick turnaround. I'm extremely proud. The other thing is, in our third straight NCAA game, we had a shutout. You have a clean sheet there. And if we do that, we'll win a lot of games going forward. This is one of the toughest weekends of the year, Friday to Sunday, 32 to 8. You start the weekend with 32 teams, and now we have eight teams left, so it's an honor to be one of those eight teams. We look forward to whoever we play next Saturday. We're 90 minutes from the college cup, so we're going to focus on that this week." -- Duke head coach Robbie Church

Next Match

Duke will host the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals Saturday, Nov. 30 at 6 p.m., against Virginia Tech.

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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