#10 Duke Blanks #13 Yale, 3-0, On Friday In North-South Challenge

Friday, September 1

New Haven, Conn.

4 p.m.

Duke University

3-0-0

Yale

0-1-0

#10/11 Duke

#13/23 Yale

#10 Duke Blanks #13 Yale, 3-0, On Friday In North-South Challenge

9/1/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: Duke Sports Information

NEW HAVEN, CONN. ? After a heartbreaking loss in the second round of the 2005 NCAA Tournament to Yale, the 10th-ranked Duke women's soccer team got revenge on the 13th-ranked Bulldogs as the Blue Devils scored three second half goals to win, 3-0, on the first day of the North-South Challenge in New Haven, Conn.

Duke improves to 3-0 on the season, while Yale falls to 0-1. The Blue Devils will next take on 18th-ranked Connecticut on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. to close out the North-South Challenge. The Huskies fell, 3-2, to sixth-ranked North Carolina on Friday evening.

Blue Devil Head Coach Robbie Church opened the match starting four of his five freshmen, which were tabbed the third-best recruiting class in the nation. Earning the starts on Friday afternoon were midfielder Elisabeth Redmond, forward KayAnne Gummersall, defender Sara Murphy and defender Jane Alukonis.

“I am happy with not only the freshmen but the entire team,” said Church. “Everyone played focused and hard for the entire 90 minutes. Of course since Yale had beaten us last year in the NCAA Tournament, it didn't take much for the team to stay focused tonight.”

Over the first 45 minutes of action, the two squads played a scoreless half with Duke outshooting Yale, 10-2.

The Blue Devils came out in the second half and got on the board in the 60th minute as Gummersall collected her second goal of the season from a nifty feed from Redmond. A product of Wilmette, Ill., Gummersall was able to hit the left corner of the net from in front of the box.

Duke put the game away with 10 minutes remaining as the Blue Devils scored twice in a four-minute stretch. Senior Rebecca Moros displayed some fancy footwork in the box as she split two defenders and beat the Bulldog goalkeeper, Susan Starr, in the 80th minute. Moros, a product of Larchmont, N.Y., has now registered at least one point in each of Duke's first three contests and leads the Blue Devils with six points on the season.

The leading returning scorer from last season for Duke, Darby Kroyer, increased the Blue Devil lead to 3-0 at the 84:16 mark, as she blasted a free kick into the lower right corner from 20 yards out. Kroyer now owns 18 career goals over her four-year career.

“I am very happy with the win,” said Church. “With our crazy travel schedule on Thursday, the team was able to stay composed through it all and came out tonight and played a solid game. We didn't score any goals in the first half but I felt like over the final 30 minutes of the first half we started to dominate the game.”

As a team, Duke outshot Yale 24-10 for the contest and junior goalkeeper Allison Lipsher added her 19th career shutout as she posted five saves in 90 minutes of action.

“It was great to see us score goals in the second half and it was even nicer when we didn't back down after we took the 1-0 lead,” said Church. “This was a quality win against a team that will make the NCAA Tournament this year.”