Duke Receives Fifth Straight NCAA College Cup Invitation

DURHAM, N.C. ? For the 14th time in school history and the fifth straight year, the Duke women's soccer team received an at-large invitation to play in the NCAA Women's College Cup on Monday and will travel to Athens, Ga., on Friday, Nov. 16 for a 4:30 p.m. match against 23rd-ranked South Carolina (14-6-2). The contest will be played at the Turner Soccer Complex on the campus of the University of Georgia.

“Everybody is thrilled,” said Duke Head Coach Robbie Church. “There was a big scream that came out when our name flashed on the screen and thank goodness it flashed early so we didn't have to wait. We feel very fortunate and feel we deserve to be where we are. We now understand we have an opportunity that a lot of people don't get to play for a national championship. It is a field of 64 teams and everybody is 0-0. We are just thrilled with the opportunity to go and play.”

Hosting the four-team subregional will be 13th-ranked Georgia (17-3-2) and the Bulldogs will take on Alabama A&M (10-6-3) in the first round. The winner of the Duke/South Carolina contest will take on the winner of the Georgia/Alabama A&M match on Sunday, Nov. 18 at 1:30 p.m.

The Blue Devils own an 8-5-6 overall record and totaled a 3-3-4 mark in the very challenging Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Duke is coming off falling in overtime during the quarterfinals of the ACC Championship to 11th-ranked Wake Forest, 1-0. On the season, the Blue Devils have been led on the scoring end by the foursome of sophomore Elisabeth Redmond (6 goals, 11 assists), junior Kelly Hathorn (5 goals, 5 assists), sophomore CJ Ludemann (4 goals, 5 assists) and freshman Rebecca Allen (5 goals, 2 assists), who have scored 20 of Duke's 28 goals on the year.

Redmond, a second team All-ACC selection, owns a team-best 11 assists and six goals for a total of 23 points. A native of Morristown, N.J., Redmond has registered three game-winning goals and notched eight assists on goals that have tied or been the game-winning goals of matches this season. Senior Allison Lipsher enters her final NCAA Tournament in goal for the Blue Devils. A product of Honolulu, Hawaii, Lipsher has totaled five shutouts and a 0.82 goals against average in 2007.

South Carolina enters the NCAA Tournament coming off a 2-0 loss to 13th-ranked Georgia in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Tournament semifinals. The Gamecocks opened the season with seven straight wins, including a 1-0 win over top-seeded North Carolina in the season opener. Darcel Mallon has led South Carolina with 10 goals on the season.

“We have a very tough draw,” said Church. “We are playing against a team in South Carolina that beat North Carolina in the first game of the year and has had a very good season. They [South Carolina] have been on the Georgia field before and are in more of a familiar territory than ourselves. We are excited about it. We have worked very hard for this and is what we started for. Our team is very, very close as we have to be able to do some things a little bit better than we have done the last week or so.”

The ACC led all conferences with eight tournament bids, while the SEC had six teams receive invitations. A total of 30 automatic bids along with 34 at-large invitations were given out this season. The four No. 1 seeds include the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, an automatic qualifier from the ACC, Penn State University, the UCLA, an automatic qualifier from the PAC-10 Conference, and Stanford University.

Tickets for NCAA Tournament games will cost $7 for adults and $3 for children and students with a valid I.D. Fans can purchase tickets at the venue on Friday or can place orders in advance by calling the UGA Ticket Office at 706-542-1231. Tickets purchased for Friday's first-round action will be valid for both games.

The NCAA Division I College Cup will be played Dec. 7, 9 at the Aggie Soccer Complex in College Station, Texas.

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