It's always physical when Wake Forest and Duke meet on a soccer field, and Friday night's NCAA women's semifinal at times became the grudge match fans have come to expect.
Overall, though, the Blue Devils' 4-1 win had a different, weird, feel to it.
After splitting two games with each other earlier in the regular season, when each team's work in tight spaces had plenty to do with the outcome, Duke opened up its already aggressive attack, and the Deacons fell into some uncharacteristically poor habits.
Duke's first and fourth goals were both scored off corner kicks, and the Blue Devils also scored on a penalty kick less than a minute after Wake Forest had pulled to within a goal at 2-1 on Rachel Nuzzolese's goal in the 57th minute.
There was a strange vibe in the air over the KSU Soccer Stadium, north of Atlanta.
"We haven't given up anything off set pieces all year; zero," coach Tony da Luz of Wake Forest said. "It was a bad time to start. (Duke is) dangerous on them. We found that out."
The Deacons (18-4-4) lost 2-0 to Duke when the Blue Devils visited Winston-Salem on Oct. 20, when Wake Forest forward Katie Stengel was out with an injury and defender Jackie Logue was limited to about half the game.
The Deacons seemed to get back to their personality in beating Duke 2-1 in the ACC tournament on Nov. 4.
Friday, it was hard to peg the Deacons' personality at all.
They carried action through much of the first half, during which they attempted seven corner kicks of their own, only to come up empty.
But then Duke's Nicole Lipp launched a corner kick in the 43rd minute, and reserve forward Molly Lester put it away on the far post for a 1-0 lead.
"I thought we were pretty good at creating things; we created some good shots. We didn't finish," da Luz said.
"The game could've ended up 6-5. There were a lot of chances … way too open for my liking."
Duke (22-3-1) pushed the lead to 2-0 in the 51st minute when Mollie Pathman put a shot in off the far post, but the Deacons rallied. Nuzzolese scored her 12th goal of the season, unassisted, in the 57th minute and the crowd of 9,253 seemed to sense that it was a new game. That didn't last long.
Midfielder Riley Ridgik was penalized while marking Duke's Kaitlyn Kerr in the penalty box. Television replays appeared to indicate that Ridgik made a play on the ball before both players went down about 18 yards in front of the goal.
"She'd been pushing me the whole game," Kerr said afterward.
Pathman's penalty kick — the first attempted by Duke all season, and the first allowed all season by Wake Forest — gave the Blue Devils a 3-1 lead.
Da Luz didn't see the play the same way as Kerr.
"To be diplomatic, I guess it could have gone either way," he said. "I thought our kid did a pretty good job getting a piece of the ball and they went down together.
"So that's just the way it is."
Kerr scored on another corner kick, again from Lipp, in the 75th minute to close the scoring.
Wake Forest seniors Amanda Howell, Jordan Feger and Chelsea Allen will move on having won 60 games in their careers, yet lamenting one loss more than all others.
"This senior class had more wins than any senior class to date," da Luz said. "They made great contributions and hopefully the next senior class will … see this thing through. There was a little bit of nerves, and probably more turnovers than we would usually have."
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement