The ACC’s regular season comes to an end Friday, and the middle part of the conference standings are an absolute mess. Only two points separate third place from 10th place, with Notre Dame in a five-way tie for sixth with 11 points.
Having already clinched an ACC Tournament berth, Notre Dame can secure a home match in the postseason with a win at No. 5 Duke on Friday. With 15 teams qualifying for the dance, the top eight teams get to host their first matches, while the top seed receives a first-round bye. Duke enters Friday in a similar position to the Irish, tied for fourth with 12 points but with numerous teams on its tracks.
At 7-3-5 overall and 3-2-2 in ACC play, the Irish head into November having finally exorcised their shutout demons with two consecutive clean sheets. After back-to-back 1-1 draws at home against North Carolina and Boston College, Notre Dame won for the first time in three weeks last Tuesday against UIC. It followed up that 5-0 win with its first ACC win in exactly a month, a 2-0 defeat at Cal on Sunday.
Part of Notre Dame’s defensive improvement has involved the change to graduate student Collin Travasos in goal. The former Cal Golden Bear and North Carolina Tar Heel has taken the mantle from freshman Blake Kelly and run with it, making five saves in his last two matches with no goals allowed. Should Notre Dame stick with him, Travasos will face a former rival school for his toughest test yet on Friday at Duke.
On the other side, the Blue Devils have a real chance this season to snap their 20-year College Cup drought. Duke has reached the NCAA Tournament 12 times since that 2004 season, struggling to reach the other side of the Sweet 16. Last year, the Blue Devils went 11-4-3, bowing out to Western Michigan (a team that Notre Dame beat) in their first NCAA Tournament match.
Duke comes into Friday’s tilt at 9-2-4 overall and 3-1-3 within conference action. Though they currently rank inside the nation’s top five, the Blue Devils weren’t thought of as an elite side early on. They started the year ranked 20th in the country and quickly fell out of the top 25 with a home loss to Grand Canyon. Duke later lost at home again to North Carolina on Sept. 13, reaching a low point at 3-2-1 to start the season.
The Blue Devils haven’t lost a match since. They returned to the top 25 by tying No. 1 Stanford on the road and defeating NC State in Raleigh in late September. Duke has only continued its rise throughout October, claiming a point against SMU and Wake Forest while securing road victories at Elon and Virginia Tech. The Blue Devils have outscored their last four opponents by a 20-1 margin and carry a nine-match unbeaten streak into Friday’s contest.
The overall numbers will tell you Duke wields far and away the best scoring offense in the ACC, but a 14-0 defeat of Averett and a 10-0 drubbing of Howard have that average of 3.4 goals per game a bit inflated. Looking only at ACC play, Duke’s offensive output ranks near the average at seventh in the conference.
Friday’s matchup will put two of the ACC’s premier strikers against one another. Notre Dame senior Matthew Roou leads the ACC with 13 goals and 29 points. Blue Devil sophomore Ulfur Bjornsson is just off his pace with 11 and 25, continuing Duke’s string of excellent Icelandic players. Bjornsson has only one goal in ACC play, so look for Adam Luckhurst, a graduate transfer from South Carolina, to leave his mark on the match. Luckhurst ranks third in the ACC with 10 goals, having scored five of them within conference play.
Last year, Notre Dame held Duke off for a 1-0 win at Alumni Stadium in early October. The Irish have won 11 of 18 all-time matchups against the Blue Devils and could benefit massively in terms of NCAA Tournament outlook with a win in Durham this season.
Friday’s match kicks off at 7 p.m. in Koskinen Stadium.
