No. 4 Duke Comes Back to Defeat No. 11 Penn State, 3-2

Thursday, August 14

Durham, N.C.

7 p.m.

Duke University

1-0-0, 0-0-0

Penn State

0-1-0, 0-0-0

Penn St.

Duke

Photo by: Duke Athletics

No. 4 Duke Comes Back to Defeat No. 11 Penn State, 3-2

8/14/2025 11:17:00 PM | Women's Soccer

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DURHAM, N.C. – Duke sophomore Mia Minestrella collected a brace and the fourth-ranked Blue Devil women's soccer team came-from-behind to defeat 11th-ranked Penn State Thursday evening in the season opener at Koskinen Stadium.

The win was the first for Duke head coach Kieran Hall, who was coaching his first collegiate contest as the Blue Devil head coach. With the victory, Duke moved to 17-0 all-time in home season openers and extended its home unbeaten streak to 14 dating back to last year.

How It Happened

Duke opened the match with a quick score as freshman Jocelyn Travers slid a ball to junior Mia Minestrella at the top left corner of the box, who then found a streaking freshman Avery Oder as she got behind her defender.A native of Calabasas, Calif., Oder took a couple of touches and buried the ball into the bottom right corner to give Duke a 1-0 advantage just 3:20 into the contest.
Penn State didn't waste much time leveling the score as the Nittany Lions took advantage of a Blue Devil turnover.Aubrey Kulpa grabbed the turnover, drove into the box and slide in PSU's first goal of 2025 off Duke goalkeeper Bianca Dominguez fingertips at the 4:13 mark.
The Nittany Lions went ahead, 2-1, in the 17th minute as Riley Gleason sent in a corner kick.Dominguez tried to bat the ball away, but went to the head of Hannah Jordan and into the net.
At the 23:41 mark, the Blue Devils evened the ledger, 2-2. Duke junior Mia Minestrella swiped a Nittany Lion turnover and passed the ball to redshirt junior Kat Rader.Rader, a native of Stuart, Fla., drove toward the top of the box, before finding a wide open Minestrella, who finished into the top right corner of the net from 15 yards.
Duke had a great chance around the 41st minute as junior Mia Oliaro stole the ball, fed senior Farrah Walters and then Oder tried to volley a shot that went just over the crossbar.
At the end of the first half, Duke held a 16-2 shot advantage with Minestrella leading the way with five and Oder with four.
The Blue Devils regained the lead, 3-2, in the 57th minute as Rader blasted a corner kick from the right side to a leaping Minestrella, who headed in her second goal of the match.
Duke had another excellent chance at the 76:14 mark as senior Devin Lynch stole the ball from a Penn State player and sent a pass to Walters, but her attempt was saved by PSU keeper Mackenzie Gress.
The Blue Devil defense was solid in the second half not allowing any dangerous opportunities by Penn State.
Duke finished the night with a 28-8 shot advantage and a 13-1 lead in corner kicks.Minestrella led the Blue Devils with six shots, while Walters finished with five and Oder had four.

Notes

Duke started five freshmen on the night – Lauren Martinho, Avery Oder, Jocelyn Travers, Daya King and Lexi Coughlin.It marked only the second time in program history the Blue Devils have opened the season with five or more freshmen in the starting lineup (2014).
Oder became the 19th Blue Devil freshman to score a goal in her first collegiate start and the first since Michelle Cooper in 2021.
Mia Minestrella totaled her third career multi-goal performance with her two goals.
Kat Rader registered a career-high two assists.
Duke's goal at the 3:20 mark of the first half was the fifth-quickest goal to open a season in Blue Devil history.
Oder's goal 3:20 into the match was the second-quickest tally by a Duke freshman in program history.
Minestrella collected her third career game-winning goal.
Duke is now 6-3 all-time when opening the season against a ranked opponent.
The Blue Devils have scored two or more goals in 24 of the 38 season openers.
Sophomore Caroline Dysart earned the victory in goal for Duke playing the final 45 minutes and notching one save.

Quotes

"I thought it was an early season game for sure. There's plenty of things that I think we need to work on and they probably need to work on too.These were two really good teams, really giving everything they possibly could. They were so dangerous in transition, their forward line is going to cause a lot of problems for a lot of teams.It gave us something to improve on. I just loved how real it was. It was a real game. It was competitive, it wasn't perfect.It was raw and I'm really proud of the team for rallying." – Duke head coach Kieran Hall

Next Match

The fourth-ranked Blue Devils will next host Northwestern Thursday, Aug. 21 at 6 p.m.The match will be aired live on ACC Network Extra from Koskinen Stadium.

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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