CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — As Duke attack Kyra Harney curled around the left side of the crease, she cocked her stick back and fired it forward.

Except the ball wasn’t there — it was bouncing on the ground.

Syracuse couldn’t come up with the loose ball as Duke settled it behind the net. Midfielder Stuart Humphrey dropped a feed from Harney as she cut toward the crease. The ball bounced into goalie Kelsey Richardson’s stick and she helped defender Brenna Rainone clear the ball.

The stop helped SU regain its footing in the back end after the Blue Devils went on a 4-1 run.

“We just needed to get a stop,” SU defender Mallory Vehar said of killing Duke’s momentum. “We needed that to be the end of their run.”

Sixth-seeded SU’s (13-6, 3-4 Atlantic Coast) defense largely stymied the Blue Devils’ offense after allowing six goals in the first 15 minutes of the game. Second-seeded Duke (14-3, 5-2) scored just four more goals through the final 45 minutes. The Orange will now play first-seeded North Carolina (16-2, 6-1), the only team to beat SU by more than three goals.

“We knew all it would take is a bit of a run,” SU head coach Gary Gait said of the lethargic start. “…We got the next draw, got the next possession, got a stop, got another goal. I think those are the things in the beginning of the year we weren’t getting done.”

Part of the reason for SU’s poor defensive showing at the start was because of the previous night’s game. The Orange dug out a double-overtime win against Boston College just 18 hours before it took the field again at Klockner Stadium on Friday.

“I think our players came out a little slow,” Gait said. “I didn’t know where we were going, but they responded, and they came through.”

The defense slowly worked itself into the game. SU shut out Duke for the last 14:52 of the first half and first 6:10 of the second half. Duke converted on 36 percent of its shots in the second half despite converting nearly 48 percent of its shots for the season.

When the Blue Devils beat the defense, Richardson stopped Duke’s shots, saving eight of the 18 shots on net.

“Unfortunately, unlike the first half, we didn’t capitalize on our scoring opportunities,” Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “… I just don’t think we took that extra second to see the white space around the goalie.

With just under seven minutes left, SU made its biggest stand. Attack Devon Collins’ check caught defender Claire Scarrone’s ponytail and the attack was given a yellow card and sent to the penalty box.

Just more than 40 seconds into the penalty, Blue Devils midfielder Chelsea Landon lobbed a pass from the right of the net to the left of the 12-meter arc to Kerrin Maurer. Maurer fired a pass to Taylor Trimble, who stood on the crease and fired the pass into the net to send her bench into a brief frenzy.

But play halted. A shooting space from seconds before prevented the Blue Devils from cutting the SU lead to one.

Richardson then made a point-blank save as Trimble found herself on the doorstep of a goal.

Trimble wandered in front of Richardson again, but defender Kaeli O’Connor ran to Trimble and forced Trimble’s shot wide of the net. The ball found its way on top of the net and Richardson picked the ball up with her hand.

SU cleared the ball while up 12-10, and Duke didn’t score a goal for the rest of the game. The man-up opportunity allowed the Blue Devils plenty of opportunities to cut its deficit, but Duke failed to beat Richardson and the defense.

“Last time we played Duke, we had multiple opportunities to tie the game,” Gait said. “We just didn’t make the plays and today, we made them and we stopped them and we made them and we stopped them.

“That was definitely the key.”

Published on April 24, 2015 at 9:26 pm

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