No. 24 Southern California Defeats Duke 3-1 in Home Game – Great

DURHAM – No. 24 Southern California registered a pair of second-half goals en route to defeating No. 4 Duke women’s soccer, 3-1, on Thursday evening at Koskinen Stadium.  

Blue Devil sophomore Kat Rader scored the lone goal for Duke and has found the back of the net in each of the first two matches.  The Blue Devils dropped to 1-1-0 on the season, while the Trojans improved to 2-0-0.  

How It Happened

•    Southern California had a quick look to open the match as Sim Awujo found open space on the right side of the box, drove in and had a one-v-one look at the goal with Blue Devil keeper Leah Freeman.  Freeman made a sliding save to keep the Trojans off the board.

•    The Blue Devils then connected at the 12:35 mark as sophomore Carina Lageyre found sophomore Elle Piper on the right side of the box, where she crossed in a perfect ball to the head of Kat Rader.  For the second straight match, Rader gave Duke a 1-0 lead as she placed the ball inside the goal.  

•    Duke kept peppering the Trojans’ goal adding six-straight shots, while catching USC offsides a couple of times.

•    Southern California evened the match at the 36:05 mark as Kayla Colbert sent a long cross in front of the goal where Maribel Flores headed the ball into the far-right corner.  

•    At the end of the first half, Duke held a 7-3 shot advantage and the score was knotted, 1-1.  USC had seven offsides calls in the first.

•    The Trojans took their first lead, 2-1, of the match as Angeles Escobar grabbed the ball after a tie up just outside the box.  Escobar took a couple of touches and blasted a shot inside the top-right corner of the goal from 14 yards.  

•    Southern California added another at the 77:49 mark to go ahead, 3-1, as Colbert made her way inside the box along the line and fired a shot in front of the goal. The ball went off the hands of Freeman and into the goal.  

•    For the match, Duke held a 13-5 shot advantage.

Notes

•    Duke moved to 10-1-1 when Kat Rader scores, since she arrived in Durham. It was the first loss when she scores for the Blue Devils.

•    The goal for Rader was her 14th as a Blue Devil and second of the season.

•    Both Duke transfers Julia Saunicheva and Kati Druzina came off the bench in the second half to make their Blue Devil debuts.

•    The loss snapped a seven-match win streak for Duke at home in Koskinen Stadium and is only the 11th loss at home over the last seven years.  

•    The three goals allowed is the most given up by the Duke defense at home against a non-conference opponent since giving up three against West Virginia on Sept. 9, 2016.

•    Duke sophomore Carina Lageyre attempted a career-high four shots, including two on goal. Rader had four shots with three on goal.  

•    Lageyre posted her first collegiate assist in the first half, while Elle Piper registered her second.

Quotes

“Congratulations to Southern California.  It is a great win for them to come in here and win at our home field.  It is mixed results.  There were things that we did well.  We created a lot of opportunities and a lot of chances.  I thought we built it really well and played in the middle zone very well.  We scored a great goal, but we didn’t capitalize on a couple of chances to go up 2-0.  That would have been really a big deficit for them to come back.  We are going to have nights like this.  We have a lot of new players and new starters that are in there, but we still have to get better.”  – Duke head coach Robbie Church

Next Match

Duke will close a three-game homestand Sunday, Aug. 27 as the Blue Devils host Wisconsin at 12 p.m., live on ACC Network.  

To stay up to date with Blue Devils women’s soccer, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching “https://goduke.com/news/2023/8/24/DukeWSOC”.

#GoDuke