Minestrella, Courtwright Power No. 6 Duke Past SMU, 5-0

Friday, October 16

Dallas, TX

8:30 p.m.

Duke University

8-1-4, 3-1-3

SMU

5-6-4, 0-5-2

Team	1	2	Final F
Duke	1	4	5
SMU	0	0	0

Photo by: SMU Athletics

Minestrella, Courtwright Power No. 6 Duke Past SMU, 5-0

10/17/2026 12:59:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score Courtwright Interview Hall Interview Photo Gallery Box Score (PDF)

DALLAS, TEXAS – In a homecoming for Dallas native Sam Courtwright, the redshirt junior collected a career-high five points, and senior Mia Minestrella registered a hat trick to lead the sixth-ranked Duke women's soccer team to a 5-0 victory Friday evening at Washburne Soccer and Track Stadium.

Duke led 1-0 at the end of the first half and erupted for four second-half goals to improve to 8-1-4 overall and 3-1-3 in the ACC. SMU moved to 5-6-4, 0-5-2.

Courtwright totaled her first career brace and finished with an assist for a career-high five points. Minestrella turned in her second hat trick of the season and now owns an ACC-best 15 goals. Her 45 career goals are two away from tying Duke's all-time goals mark.

How It Happened

After SMU opened the match with a shot that went wide, the Blue Devils came back and capitalized on Duke's second shot to go ahead, 1-0.
Duke's Texas natives Cameron Roller and Sam Courtwright found Katie Shea Collins on the left corner of the box near the end line and sent a perfect cross to a leaping Mia Minestrella, who finished into the back left corner to give the Blue Devils an early lead.
Just after entering the match, redshirt sophomore Lauren Martinho had a great look at the goal from the top of the box, but SMU goalkeeper Aubrey Brown made a diving stop to her left in the 26th minute.
Courtwright and sophomore Avery Oder found Minestrella in the box, but her shot attempt was blocked in the 34th minute.
At the 42:22 mark, sophomore Jocelyn Travers fired a free kick to a leaping senior Mia Oliaro, but the header was saved once again by Brown.
Duke held a 9-3 shot advantage at the end of the first half with Collins leading the way with three shots, while Minestrella and Martinho had two apiece.
The Blue Devils came out firing in the second half. Collins got open on the left side of the box, but her left-footed shot was saved by Brown in the 47th minute.
Roller then sent a header off a corner kick from Travers at the 50:32 mark, but it went high.
Duke went ahead, 2-0, in the 59th minute as Courtwright passed to Oliaro, who drove along the right side of the box and crossed a beautiful ball to Minestrella. A product of Redondo Beach, California, Minestrella used her head to flick the ball past SMU's goalkeeper for her second goal of the night.
Just one minute, 26 seconds later, Courtwright and Oliaro combined on a give-and-go that left Courtwright open on the right side of the box. A native of Dallas, Courtwright sent a right-footed attempt from 23 yards that hit the far left post and went in to put Duke ahead, 3-0.
Duke kept attacking the Mustang goal, and Martinho found an open freshman Rylee McLanahan in front of the goal, but her shot was saved by Brown. The keeper batted the ball away and came to the feet of Minestrella, who finished for her third goal of the night to give Duke a 4-0 lead.
On Duke's 12th corner kick of the evening, Travers sent a ball toward the middle of the box where Martinho redirected it. Courtwright one-timed it with her left foot into the bottom left corner past Brown for her second goal of the night to give Duke a 5-0 advantage.
Sophomore Molly Vapensky kept the Mustangs off the board in the 84th minute as she made a diving stop to her left off a shot from Libby Jannereth.

Notes

Duke scored in the first 10 minutes for the second game in a row and the ninth time this season.
Mia Minestrella has now scored a goal in 11 out of the last 13 true road contests.
Minestrella recorded her fourth career game with three or more goals and her second hat trick of the season.
Minestrella now owns 45 career goals and is two away from tying Kelly Walbert's school record of 47. She owns 106 career points and is 11 away from Walbert's career mark. Minestrella totaled her eighth career multi-goal performance to move into a tie for third on Duke's all-time charts.
Minestrella now owns 11 career game-winning goals, which ranks tied for sixth all-time at Duke.
Duke scored its first goal off a corner kick this season.
Sam Courtwright netted two goals and an assist and has now scored or assisted in seven of Duke's 13 matches. It marked her first career multi-goal performance. Her five points were a career high.
Katie Shea Collins collected an assist, which marked her first point since Sept. 13 against Stanford. She exited the match early in the second half and did not return.
Senior Mia Oliaro had a season-high two assists and now has 29 career assists. This marked her sixth multi-assist performance of her career.
Duke has now outscored opponents 22-2 in the first half this season.
Molly Vapensky posted two saves over 90 minutes in goal and helped Duke to its fifth shutout of the season.

Quotes

"I thought the first half was okay. I think SMU was really well-organized, really enthusiastic, had good energy in transition, especially, and caused a lot of problems off first and second balls. But the second half, I think we really stepped up and started really getting a hold of the game and playing the kind of soccer that we can." – Duke head coach Kieran Hall
"I think it was really needed. We've had some ties. We had a good win against Boston College last week, but I think we could really use the momentum of scoring five goals. And our team can put performances like that on the board every single game. It's just a matter of getting the ball into the back of the net, and we did that tonight really well, which I think we were looking for these past few weeks." – Duke redshirt junior Sam Courtwright
"Yeah, honestly, I just feel super blessed. All of those people have been a part of my journey and part of getting me here, so it was amazing to get to kind of share that moment with them and show them how all my hard work has paid off and all they've contributed to it. So, it was really nice getting to get in front of them." – Duke redshirt junior Sam Courtwright

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