North Carolina Comes Back To Defeat Duke, 4-2, In ACC Semifinals

Friday, November 5

Cary, N.C.

7:30 PM

Duke University

13-7

North Carolina

18-0-1

#11 Duke University

#1/1 North Carolina

North Carolina Comes Back To Defeat Duke, 4-2, In ACC Semifinals

11/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: Duke Sports Information

Nov. 5, 2004

Box Score

CARY, N.C.- The 11th-ranked Duke women's soccer team gave the top-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels everything they had on Friday evening at the SAS Soccer Complex in Cary, N.C., but the Blue Devils came up short falling 4-2 in the ACC Tournament Semifinals.

The top-seeded Tar Heels (18-0-1) collected three second half goals to defeat Duke (13-7-0) to advance to the finals to face second-seeded Virginia on Sunday at 3:00 PM in the ACC Championship.

"Obviously, I am very proud of our team," said Duke Head Coach Robbie Church. "We fought and I thought we had a really good game plan. I thought our girls came out and executed it well. It is tough falling behind as they [North Carolina] came out and really took the game over at the beginning. I was proud of how we settled down and our goalkeeper made a couple of saves early to keep us in the game. You could see our team's confidence started growing."

North Carolina came out early firing and was able to take a 1-0 advantage on Elizabeth's Guess' second goal of the season off assists from Jaime Gilbert and Anne Morrell. Guess was able to hit from 14 yards out from the left side of the box at the 5:57 mark.

After settling down, the Blue Devils stormed back to take a 2-1 lead behind two goals from junior Carolyn Riggs. At the 18:12 mark, senior Casey McCluskey found Riggs, who then beat two Tar Heel defenders and hit the right corner of the net.

"We came out this time with a lot of confidence," said Riggs. "[In the second half], it wasn't that we dropped the level of our game at all, [UNC] just stepped up. We broke down a few times, but I am pretty happy with everyone's else effort on the field."

Then, less than two minutes later junior Carolyn Ford sent a perfect feed in-between two North Carolina defenders to Riggs, who beat North Carolina goalkeeper Aly Winget for her first two-goal performance of the season at the 20:01 mark. An Indianapolis, Ind., product, Riggs posted her eight goal of the season in the first half and now has three two-goal outputs in her three years at Duke.

"Carolyn [Riggs] scoring two goals were huge and they were great finishes," said Church. "It was great to be up at halftime and it didn't last long."

North Carolina made one final attempt to score at the end of the first half as Laura Winslow had a shot at the Duke net at the 43:26 mark, but junior Shelly Marshall made a key team save to preserve the Blue Devil lead.

At the end of the first half, North Carolina held a 7-4 shot advantage, while Duke was called offsides seven times to UNC's one. The 2-1 halftime score was the first Blue Devil lead over North Carolina since Duke led 2-0 against the Tar Heels in 1999, before falling 3-2 in Durham, N.C.

In the second half, North Carolina used two goals from Gilbert at the 50:00 and 55:24 marks to take a 3-2 lead over the Blue Devils. Then, the Tar Heel defense held the Duke offense to only two shots, which both came with less than seven minutes left in regulation. Guess added her second goal of the match in the 72nd minute off a feed to far post to give North Carolina a 4-2 victory.

Gilbert, a freshman forward, posted her second straight game-winning goal for the Tar Heels over Duke. Morrell finished the match with three assists, which tied an ACC Tournament single game record.

In goal for the Blue Devils, freshman Allison Lipsher finished with three saves. North Carolina concluded the match with a 14-6 shot advantage. It marks the third straight year Duke has lost in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament.

With the two goals scored on the evening Duke's Riggs moved into fifth place on the Blue Devil career charts in goals with 25 and now owns 64 points, which ranks seventh. Duke will now wait for the NCAA Selection Show on Monday at 4:30 p.m.

"We are looking forward to the NCAA Tournament and we feel like we can go deep in the NCAA Tournament," said Church.

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