#16 Duke Blanks #9 Florida State, 2-0, For Key ACC Victory

Friday, October 1

Durham, N.C.

7:00 PM

Duke University

9-2-0, 2-0-0

Florida St.

7-3-0, 1-2-0

#14/9 Florida State

#16 Duke University

#16 Duke Blanks #9 Florida State, 2-0, For Key ACC Victory

10/1/2004 1:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: Duke Sports Information

Oct. 1, 2004

Box Score

DURHAM, N.C. - The 16th-ranked Duke women's soccer team continued its impressive streaks on Friday evening at Koskinen Stadium as the Blue Devils collected their school-record seventh straight shutout defeating ninth-ranked Florida State, 2-0, in front of a season-high 1,500 fans.

Duke improves to 9-2 overall and 2-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, while Florida State falls to 7-3 overall, 1-2 in league action. It marks the first time since 1997 that the Blue Devils started off the season with a 2-0 record in the ACC.

"We've been playing really well," said Church. "Florida State is a great team, a NCAA Final Four team, a nationally ranked team, they're going to win a lot of games, and make a lot of noise on the national scene, but I didn't want to change [our strategy] for them because we're a very, very good team. I just wanted us to believe in ourselves, and I think we really did, especially in the second half. I thought we were working really, really hard all over the field. Everybody that came in just did a great job."

The first half was very even until the 26-minute mark when Duke Head Coach Robbie Church made three substitutions, bringing in junior Carolyn Riggs, sophomore Lauren Tippets and then junior Shelly Marshall at the 29th minute. With the fresh legs, the Blue Devils took the ball down their side of the field and had two straight corner kicks, which led to shots by junior Kate Seibert and Darby Kroyer.

Then off a foul by Florida State, junior Carolyn Ford sent a free kick from back on Duke's defensive end which bounced through a couple of Seminole players before Duke senior Casey McCluskey found it and streaked down the field towards the goal. A native of Springfield, Va., McCluskey then blasted a beautiful, right-footed shot from 18-yards out that hit the top left corner of the net past Florida State goalkeeper, Joy McKenzie, for her 12th goal of the season.

The goal for McCluskey was the 36th of her career, which moves her into sole possession of second place on Duke's all-time scoring list. It also marks the sixth straight game she has scored a goal for the Blue Devils, which is a school record.

After three more shots for the Blue Devils, the first half ended with Duke leading 1-0. From the offensive end, Duke held the advantage in shots, 7-2.

In the second half, Duke came out firing with two shots over the first seven minutes with Florida State's McKenzie picking up saves. The next 16 minutes were back and forth until the Seminoles started putting the pressure on the Blue Devils. FSU defender Kelly Rowland had the best scoring opportunity of the evening, so far, for the Seminoles as she headed the ball towards the goal, which sailed over the head of Duke goalkeeper Allison Lipsher and hit the crossbar.

The Blue Devils responded with offensive action of their own as Marshall sent a feed down the left side of the field to Riggs. An Indianapolis, Ind., product, Riggs sprinted with the ball before sending a cross in front of the goal to Tippets, who rocketed an eight-yard shot into the left corner of the net, for her second goal of the season.

"I think we gave them a lot of respect at the beginning of the game, just because they did so well last year, and we had gotten beaten so badly last year," said Tippets. "The second half we knew we needed to get another goal, an insurance goal, just because they were putting so much pressure on us. I think once we got the second goal, we could just sit back a little more and play our game. Obviously, we're really excited about this win," said Tippets. "It was a win we really needed and I think it gives us a lot of confidence coming into Miami on Sunday."

Florida State came back and had a second excellent scoring opportunity as Rowland beat Duke defenders and had a one-on-one break against Lipsher, but the freshman from Honolulu, Hawaii, stopped a blast from Rowland from 15 yards out.

Lipsher finished the game with four saves and improves to 6-2 on the season. She improved her consecutive scoreless streak to 494.14 minutes and posted her fifth shutout of the season. Duke's defensive notched its NCAA-best ninth shutout of the season and are four away from a school record.

"We've really just been working very hard in practice because we had a couple of rough games at the start," said Lipsher. "The goalkeeper and the defense really weren't communicating well at the beginning of the season, but we've worked on in a lot in practice and apparently it's just all coming together."

Overall, Duke outshot Florida State, 20-10, and held a 7-3 advantage in corner kicks. Duke will next travel to Coral Gables, Fla., to battle the University of Miami (2-5, 1-3 ACC) on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.

"Any time we can score two goals in a match against a quality opponent like this, we're fine with that," said Church. "We've still got to work on finishing; we do every day in practice, but as long as we keep putting zeroes on the board and score one or two goals, we'll be in good shape."

Notes: Duke improves to 6-2-2 overall against Florida State in the all-time series and the Seminoles have never won in Durham with an overall 0-3-2 record ... Duke's crowd of 1,500 fans is a season-high ... since a 5-1 loss to Florida on Sept. 5, Duke has outscored its opponents 27-0.

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