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DURHAM, N.C. - The 14th-ranked Duke women's soccer team registered one of its biggest victories of the season on Saturday evening at Koskinen Stadium in Durham, N.C. as the Blue Devils collected a 1-0 shutout against fourth-ranked Virginia.
The victory improves the Blue Devils to 10-4-1 overall and 3-2 in the ACC, while Virginia falls to 11-2-2, 3-1-1. Duke's 10 victories is a season-best under third-year head coach Robbie Church and its three league victories marks only the second time over the last six years the Blue Devils have hit the three-win mark in the ACC.
"The only way you can play a quality team like Virginia is to go out and attack them from the beginning of the game," said Church. "You have to play hard, as a unit and as a team the whole 90 minutes. I thought we really did that well tonight. Early in the day, I could tell the team was ready to play tonight. We are very confident at home."
Duke dominated most of the contest, which featured only 12 shots by both teams. In the first half, the Blue Devils notched the only goal of the match as sophomore Shelly Marshall chipped in a 15-yard shot into the right corner of the net to beat Virginia goalkeeper Anne Abernethy. Junior Casey McCluskey drove the ball down the right side of the field and sent the it into the box. Then, sophomore Carmen Bognanno tapped the ball to Marshall off a deflection from a Cavalier defender. The goal for Marshall is her second of the season and third of her short career.
"It think from the beginning we were playing together as a unit tonight," said Marshall. "I feel we are connecting more than we did earlier in the season. Tonight ,we were so pumped up to be back on our home field and going against a top-five opponent."
Virginia was held to one shot in the first half, which was one of the key moments of the match. With only 1:31 left in the stanza a Duke defender turned the ball over about 40 yards out from the Blue Devil goal and Virginia's Ariel Thompson then dribbled the ball straight at Duke goalkeeper Thora Helgadottir. Helgadottir attacked towards Thompson and corralled the shot about 18 yards outside the goal.
Duke limited Virginia's chances in the second half allowing only three shots on goal. Helgadottir picked up her second shutout of the season and 15th of her career to move into second place on Duke's all-time shutout list behind Melissa Carr (34).
"This is a great win for us," said Helgadottir. "I really believe we are on the right track right now. If we can keep playing like this, we can go a long way this season."
For the game, the Blue Devils outshot Virginia 8-4. It marks the second time this season Duke has knocked off a top-five opponent- Texas (3-2) on Aug. 31. It marks the first time since 1997, Duke has defeated Virginia in Durham.
"We know we are a good team and today marks the second top-five opponent we have defeated this year," said Church. "That is big-time for our program. If we continue to put zeros on the board on the other side, we will win a lot of games."
Duke will next travel to Clemson on Friday for a 7:00 p.m. contest in Clemson, S.C.
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