Duke And WFU Battle To 1-1 Draw In ACC Action

Thursday, October 18

Winston-Salem, N.C.

7:00 p.m.

Duke University

7-3-4, 2-2-2

Wake Forest

7-5-3, 2-2-2

OT 3

OT 4

Duke

#--/21 Wake Forest

Sophomore CJ Ludemann Shares ACC Player of the Week Honors

Duke And WFU Battle To 1-1 Draw In ACC Action

10/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: Duke Sports Information

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.? The 26th-ranked Duke and 21st-ranked Wake Forest Women's Soccer Teams battled for 110 minutes on Thursday evening to finish in a 1-1 draw at Spry Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C. Both teams entered the match very evenly matched and it showed in the final result as the Blue Devils moved to 7-3-4 overall, 2-2-2 in the ACC, while the Demon Deacons are now 7-5-3, 2-2-2.

“Overall, I am happy to get a point,” said Duke Head Coach Robbie Church. “I am not happy overall with how we played. We have to get better the last four games. We will go home, regroup a little bit and get ready for Maryland.”

Wake Forest took the opening shot of the match as Amy Smerdzinski found herself open on the right side of the box but her attempt sailed wide left in the second minute. Duke came right back as sophomore's Jane Alukonis and Elisabeth Redmond found junior Kelly Hathorn at the top of the box. Hathorn, who is from Durham, N.C., used her right foot to send a shot towards the goal but it went just left of the post at the 5:17 mark.

The Demon Deacons got on the board first at the 26:24 mark as sophomore Jill Hutchinson took a long feed down the field and beat three Duke defenders before blasting a right-footed shot into the top right corner of the Blue Devil goal.

At the end of the first half, Wake Forest held a 6-1 shot advantage and controlled most of the first 45 minutes. The Demon Deacons had plenty of chances and the Blue Devils were lucky to be down only 1-0.

“We have to figure out the first half,” said Church. “Unfortunately, this is the second straight game that we have not started off well. We know we were fortunate to go to halftime down just, 1-0. I am very proud of the girls. They showed a lot of character as we challenged them at halftime to come out, play and show what Duke soccer is. I thought they did a great job with that in the second half.”

Duke took the first shot of the second period as 3:37 into play Redmond took the Blue Devils' second shot of the match that went wide. Wake Forest had another great opportunity in the 55th minute as Maggie Horne's attempt went just high over the crossbar. The Demon Deacons' Megan Upchurch then had a header off a corner kick in the 63rd minute that went right of the post.

With 21 minutes left in the match, Church moved junior defender Christie McDonald up front to go along with Redmond and freshman Gretchen Miller to try to create some offense. Five minutes later sophomore CJ Ludemann, Redmond and freshman Marybeth Kreger showed some skilled passing that led to McDonald charging towards the Wake Forest goal, but her flip shot with the right foot flew over the crossbar in one of Duke's best scoring chances of the match.

“We changed our formation and tried to do everything we possibly could to change the game,” said Church. “We went to a formation we hadn't played all year. We hadn't even practiced the formation; we went with a 3-4-3. We needed people to go up front, needed to get the ball up front and needed to lock it in -- it did. I am very happy with the way we adjusted on the fly. We had a lot of young kids in there and one time we had five freshmen on the field and that is tough in this league.”

After finally getting some offensive pressure on the Demon Deacons, Duke was able to even the match at the 78:33 mark as Redmond found Ludemann in the top of circle on the Wake Forest side. A native of Holtsville, N.Y., settled the ball and rocketed a 35-yard shot that sailed over the hands of Deacon goalkeeper Laura Morse. The goal for Ludemann was her third of the season and assist for Redmond was her team-best eighth.

“Elisabeth got a good ball, took her time as she didn't panic and beat about three people,” said Ludemann. “She passed it to me, I turned on my girl, settled it and I had the open shot. I remembered the Ohio State game, ?said so why not hit it,' and I guess I just found the good corner.”

The Blue Devils kept the pressure on Wake Forest as in a span of just over a minute junior Lorraine Quinn had a header from in front of the goal go right of the post and Ludemann had a right-footed shot from 18 yards go high over the crossbar with 6:41 remaining.

At the end of regulation, Wake Forest owned a 10-6 shot advantage, but four of Duke's attempts came over the final 17 minutes.

“CJ's goal was [a big time goal],” said Church. “She had a little bit of space in the midfield and she started to attack the space. We have seen that goal before as it was the second time she has scored that type of goal [this season]. She scored it against Ohio State for a game-winner; now she scores it for a tying goal. Once she hits it you almost start to expect shots like that from CJ. She is a big-time player and at that time she made a big-time play.”

In the first overtime with the score knotted at 1-1, Ludemann took the only shot of the action that Morse saved at the 94th minute.

Duke almost finished the match off in the 103rd minute as Ludemann sent a feed down the field where Redmond fought off two Wake Forest defenders and flipped a shot that went a few inches over the crossbar. The Demon Deacons were given a free kick with the next game-ending opportunity shortly after. Hutchinson's kick was handled by Duke goalkeeper Allison Lipsher.

The Blue Devils came back with less than two minutes remaining as freshman Kendall Bradley took an attempt that was blocked by a Wake Forest defender. The match ended with a 1-1 result.

Duke closed the match outshooting Wake Forest 7-0 over the final 37 minutes of play. Lipsher, who is from Honolulu, Hawaii, finished the match with one save in 110 minutes, while Morse added two saves. For the game, Wake Forest held a 10-9 shot advantage.

“In the last part of the game, we were the better team,” said Church. “Wake Forest is a good program. This is our fourth straight game on the road and to go 1-1-2 in this league is not bad. It is not bad at all. We got a point out of here, but we have to be able to go home, regroup and defend our field. We have a desperate Maryland team coming in that has been off for a week and we have to get three points.”

Duke will return home on Sunday for a 2:00 p.m. contest against Maryland at Koskinen Stadium. The match will kick off a three-match homestand as Duke will also host Florida State on Oct. 28 at 12:00 p.m. and Miami on Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m.

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