Duke men’s soccer team finds a needed spark
With his team mired in a six-game winless streak three weeks ago, Duke men’s coach John Kerr could feel the season slipping away.
“We gave up 14 goals in six games,” Kerr recalled. “We needed a spark.”
The Blue Devils found a couple of them. Kerr inserted Brown transfer Mitch Kupstas, a graduate student, as his starting goalkeeper and moved senior Zach Mathers from his holding midfielder role to forward.
Duke (7-6-2) has gone 3-2 in its past five games, and while there’s still a lot of work to do in the final three regular-season games if the Blue Devils harbor any designs on the postseason, they have clearly righted the ship.
Kupstas “has been real solid,” Kerr said. “His decision making has improved. His ball distributing has improved.”
The emergence of midfielder Ciaran McKenna, the freshman from Scotland, allowed Kerr to shift Mathers up front, where he has become a scoring machine. Mathers has five goals and two assists since moving to forward six games ago, including a hat trick in a 6-2 win over then-No. 23 N.C. State that earned him ACC offensive player of the week honors and inclusion on national teams of the week by College Soccer News and TopDrawerSoccer.com. For the season Mathers has scored seven goals and totaled 18 points. That’s one more goal than he scored in his first three seasons combined and only four points below his career mark.
“I’m way more attack oriented,” Mathers said of the position change. “I have more leeway as a forward, more freedom, when I get open. I didn’t have that in the midfield.”
Mathers didn’t score in Duke’s 2-1 overtime win Tuesday over No. 10 Elon, but he had two great chances. He was just wide left from close range in the 29th minute after a turnover. In the 50th minute his free kick from 35 yards caught the goalkeeper flatfooted but glanced off the right post.
Duke-UNC redux: Two more takeaways from Duke’s surprising 1-0 victory at North Carolina, only the third in 37 years for the Blue Devils women’s team over the Tar Heels.
1. When this season began, both coaches – Duke’s Robbie Church and UNC’s Anson Dorrance – celebrated the depth of their teams. That depth will be put to the test in a rigorous push for the postseason because of injuries. In the two games before playing Duke, UNC lost two key midfielders, freshman Dorian Bailey and junior Darcy McFarlane, to ACL tears. The same injury sidelined Duke sophomore center back Schuyler DeBree five games ago. Also, Duke was without redshirt sophomore midfielder Cassie Pecht for the UNC game because of an ankle injury. Her status remains game-to-game.
2. If the effort against UNC is any indication, a younger and hungrier Duke team appears poised to return to the NCAA tournament after a one-year absence. Only one senior – holding midfielder Kara Wilson – played against UNC for the Blue Devils, who are 8-4-4 overall (2-3-3 ACC) and own a No. 11 RPI and No. 22 national ranking. With three home games remaining against Pitt, Notre Dame and N.C. State, Duke is in good shape for the postseason.
“I think we’ll be in the NCAA tournament,” Church said. “These next three games determine where we play some games in the NCAA tournament. … Maybe there’s a chance we can stay home (and host).”
Coming into focus: After this week’s games, we should know the four teams that will play in the ACC women’s tournament at WakeMed Soccer Park on Nov. 6-8.
Right now, the top four teams in the ACC standings are No. 1 Florida State (6-0-1), No. 2 Virginia (5-1), No. 6 Clemson (5-2) and No. 7 Virginia Tech (5-2). Virginia has four games to play because of a rainout that will be made up Wednesday at N.C. State. Everybody else has three games remaining.
Three more teams are tied at 4-3 – No. 9 UNC, No. 15 Notre Dame and Pittsburgh.
The teams to watch are the Seminoles, the Irish and the Tar Heels. Florida State has a formidable task this week with games at Virginia Tech (Thursday) and Virginia (Sunday). UVa however will be without center back Emily Sonnett, who has been called to the U.S. National Team for friendlies against Brazil on Wednesday and Sunday as part of the World Cup Victory Tour. The Irish have road games at UNC (Thursday) and Duke (Sunday). The Notre Dame-UNC matchup shapes up essentially as an elimination game for the ACC tournament. The loser would have four league losses and little reasonable chance of cracking the top four. The Tar Heels also must turn around and host Clemson on Sunday.
This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 2:37 PM with the headline "Duke men’s soccer team finds a needed spark."