Blue Devils Fall, 2-0, To Seminoles In ACC Championship

Wednesday, November 1

Cary, N.C.

5:30 p.m.

Duke University

Florida State

Blue Devils Fall, 2-0, To Seminoles In ACC Championship

11/1/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: Duke Sports Information

CARY, N.C.-- For the first time since 2001, the Duke Women's Soccer Team exited the ACC Championship without winning a match on Wednesday as the Blue Devils fell, 2-0, to sixth-ranked Florida State at the SAS Soccer Complex in Cary, N.C. The Blue Devils drop to 9-8-2 overall, while the Seminoles improved to 14-2-3.

“First of all, congratulations to Florida St. for their win and good luck to them as they move on,” said Duke Head Coach Robbie Church. “I felt, as it has been the last couple of years, a typical Duke and Florida St. game. It went back and forth and was an open game. I'm very proud of our team, I thought we played very hard and its been a tough week with three games since Friday night. I thought we battled well.”

Over the first 30 minutes of action, the Blue Devils and Seminoles played an even match as Duke held a 6-4 shot advantage. Freshman Elisabeth Redmond had four shots for Duke including two opportunities in the box that were saved by Seminole goalkeeper, Ali Mims.

In the 32nd minute, Florida State's Selin Kuralay fired a 25-yard free kick that headed toward the goal but Blue Devil keeper Allison Lipsher reached and got a hand on the ball to keep the match knotted at 0-0. But the Seminoles would not be denied as just 16 seconds later Mami Yamaguchi found Onnie Trusty off a corner kick for her first career goal at the 32:50 mark. It marked the first goal this season off a corner kick for Florida State.

At the end of the first stanza, the Blue Devils held a 7-6 advantage.

Duke came out of the gates on the attack led by senior Sarah McCabe as she beat two Florida State defenders and took an 11-yard shot that hit the crossbar in first 34 seconds.

The Seminoles came back and took a 2-0 lead two minutes later as Kuralay wheeled around and blasted her 11th goal of the season from just outside the 18. Yamaguchi collected her second assist of the match for the Semifinals.

“A big turning point was early in the second half when Sarah McCabe had a nice run and shot that went off the cross bar,” said Church. “The ball came down and they [Florida St.] went back up the field. They hit a shot that hit that deflects off our head, hits underneath the crossbar, and goes in to make it 2-0. And with a quality team like Florida State that is a tough thing to overcome. At times I felt we rushed some thing, but we battled and created plenty of opportunities but couldn't finish them and Florida St. finished their chances.”

Duke didn't have another excellent scoring opportunity until the 71st minute when senior Darby Kroyer fired a right-footed free kick, which was saved by Mims. Kroyer had another chance in the 78th minute as she sent a kick from 24-yards that Mims got a hand on to knock over the crossbar.

The Blue Devils had four shots to close out the contest by freshman Sara Murphy, freshman KayAnne Gummersall, senior Lauren Tippets and senior Rebekah Fergusson but none could get past Mims, who finished with five saves for the Seminoles.

“We knew that if we battled hard and gave it our all that we could come back like we did before,” said Kroyer. “It was unfortunate that we got scored on in the first five minutes but we still battled the rest of the [second] half.”

For the match, the Blue Devils outshot the Florida State, 16-11. Duke also registered a season-high 14 corner kicks. Lipsher finished the evening with three saves in goal for the Blue Devils.

“I think anytime you play a team like Florida St. that a lot of teams you can panic,” said Redmond. “I think we rushed some of our decisions and we did our best to create opportunities, we just needed to finish them.”

The Blue Devils had advanced to the semifinals of the ACC Tournament the past four straight years. Wednesday's contest marked the sixth time this season Duke has not scored a goal in a contest.

Duke will next await the NCAA Tournament selection show on Monday at 5:00 p.m. to find out if the Blue Devils will receive an at-large invitation.

“To be honest with you I feel confident,” commented Church on a NCAA Tournament bid. “I think we deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament and I think that one of the things the selection committee will look at is teams that go out and challenge themselves and get better with their out of conference schedules. I think you have to look at quality wins. Not only have we challenged ourselves but we have gotten results. I honestly feel that we deserve to be in the tournament.”

Florida State Quotes

Head Coach Mark Krikorian:

Opening comments
“I think that we feel very good about coming out of here with a win. Duke is an outstanding team and they gave us all we could handle. We scored a couple of decent goals, which is nice, and our defending was solid. Overall, I'm pretty excited about our performance.”

On last meeting being on his mind
“Well we sure did. I'm not sure I had to remind them. We talked a little bit about what we should talk about at this point. We knew they would come out and create a similar situation like what happened at Duke a few weeks ago. I'm proud of our effort and our defending was solid. We bent a little bit, but we didn't break.”

On importance of getting that second goal
“I think it was very important. At the start of the second half Duke pressed us and had the ball on our end and it was a nice ball that Mami (Yamaguchi) for the cross and the 2-0 lead felt better than simply 1-0. You take the lead when you can get it and try to hold on to it and add to it when ever you can.”

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