Blue Devils Blank N.C. State, 2-0, on Sunday

Sunday, October 24

Durham, N.C.

6:00 p.m.

Duke University

10-5-3, 4-4-1ACC

N.C. State

7-10-0, 1-7-0ACC

N.C. State

Duke

Lipp Checks in as the Spring Season Comes to a Close

Blue Devils Blank N.C. State, 2-0, on Sunday

10/24/2010 9:24:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. – After a slow start to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) season, the Duke women's soccer team is starting to play some of its best soccer of the year. The Blue Devils registered a 2-0 shutout of N.C. State on Sunday at Koskinen Stadium in Durham, N.C., to win their third straight match.

The Blue Devils have now improved to 10-5-3 overall and 4-4-1 in the ACC, while N.C. State falls to 7-10-0, 1-7-0. Duke has reached the 10-win mark for the seventh time under the direction of Head Coach Robbie Church out of 10 seasons.

Duke opened the match on the attack as the Blue Devils attempted the first three shots before getting on the board in the 18th minute. After N.C. State committed a foul outside the box, sophomore Nicole Lipp stepped up and sent a right-footed shot from 27 yards out that bent into the left corner of the net. Wolfpack goalkeeper Kim Kern didn't have a chance at stopping the perfectly placed ball. Lipp, who is a product of Lake Forest, Ill., posted her first goal of the season and third of her career.

“We (Mollie Pathman and herself) always go to the ball and see who's feeling good,” commented Lipp. “She just asked me if you could hit it, like you've been doing in practice, and I said yeah. Then I hit it, and it turned out a goal.”

N.C. State came back two minutes later with its best scoring opportunity of the first half as Nadia Aboulhosn sent a 10-yard shot right at Duke goalkeeper Tara Campbell, who was able to raise her hands and corral the shot.

The Blue Devils had another great scoring chance in the 27th minute as freshman Mollie Pathman sent a cross from the left side that went through the box to senior Marybeth Kreger. Kreger, who is from Noblesville, Ind., blasted a shot that went off the hands of Kern and to the feet of Duke senior Molly Lester, who sent a shot with an open goal just to the right of the post.

At the end of the first half, Duke held a 7-2 shot advantage and held its sixth straight opponent to without a goal in the first half.

“That's a big time shot -- that's not an easy thing to do,” said Head Coach Robbie Church on Nicole Lipp's goal. “That's one of the prettiest goals we've scored on the field. I don't think we were playing great at the time. We've played three games this week, I knew that it would be a little bit of a struggle during the course of the game and State played hard and played well. Any time you get the first goal, that's been the key to our three victories. We got the first goal and we need to continue to do that. What a fantastic week.”

Just eight minutes into the second half, freshman Gilda Doria played a ball down the left side to Pathman, who then found the feet of freshman Laura Weinberg. A native of Boca Raton, Fla., Weinberg placed the all just inside the right post for her team-leading ninth goal of the season. Weinberg is now one goal shy of matching the Duke single-season record for goals by a freshman, which is held by Sarah Friend.

In the 70th minute, N.C. State's Aboulhosn blocked Campbell's attempt to send the ball down the field and both scrambled for the ball as it went towards the goal line but Campbell was able to keep it from crossing the line.

Duke continued to attack the Wolfpack defense as the Blue Devils hit the crossbar on a Pathman shot and junior Chelsea Canepa hit the left post late in the contest.

The Blue Devils finished the match with a 14-5 shot advantage. Campbell closed the match with one save in 90 minutes, while Kern added five saves for the Wolfpack.

“It means a lot,” said Campbell on her third straight shutout. “The ACC is a really tough conference. For us to get three consecutive shutouts is big. The way we started conference play, we weren't getting shutouts and we were losing games because the defense was breaking down late in the game. It's good, here at the end, to start putting some zeros on the scoreboard.”

Since opening ACC play with a 0-3-1 record, Duke has come back to win four out of the last five matches and outscoring opponents 12-3.

“It's awesome to get a win at the end of the season, especially when we needed it,” said Lipp. “We needed this to get into the ACC Tournament and we got the job done. I'm really happy for our team.”

Duke will close the regular season on Thursday, Oct. 28 as the Blue Devils will host rival North Carolina for senior night at 7:00 p.m. Eight Blue Devil seniors will be recognized prior to the contest.

- d - u - k - e -