No. 3 Duke didn’t just beat No.
1 Stanford on Sunday afternoon. The Blue Devils controlled it, stretched it, and finished it with a 5-0 statement at Freeman Field at Koskinen Stadium in Durham.
Junior Katie Shea Collins set the tone early and kept showing up all over the attack. She scored Duke’s first goal, helped on the next two, and finished with a goal and two assists for a four-point day. Sophomore Avery Oder added the first brace of her college career, senior Mia Minestrella kept her scoring streak rolling with a goal for the fifth straight game, and sophomore Molly Vapensky locked down her first collegiate shutout with five saves.
The result gave Duke its third win ever over a No. 1 team, moved the Blue Devils to 7-0-1, and extended their home winning streak to 13 straight matches. Stanford fell to 5-1-1.
Duke wasted no time making the afternoon uncomfortable for the top-ranked Cardinal. Stanford got the first shot in the eighth minute, but Vapensky handled it.
Then Duke turned its first real chance into the opener at 14:14. Seniors Sam Bodensteiner and Mia Oliaro helped find Collins on the left side of the box, and the Gallatin, Tennessee native beat her defender before slipping a clean finish into the bottom right corner.
The second goal arrived in the 36th minute and came with a little more movement, a little more patience, and the same result. Freshman Yuna Marui launched a long ball to Minestrella, who took control, cut back, and found Collins at the top of the box. Collins then played it to Oder, and the sophomore from Calabasas, California, one-timed a left-footed finish into the bottom right corner.
Duke carried a 2-0 lead into halftime, along with a 5-3 shot edge. Oder had two of those looks.
Stanford opened the second half with pressure, but Vapensky met Jaden Thomas’ shot with a diving stop less than two minutes in. Duke answered with a chance of its own in the 49th minute, when Oliaro picked off a ball in midfield and sent Minestrella toward goal. Stanford keeper Rhiannon Stewart came off her line, and Minestrella’s attempt drifted just wide right.
The Blue Devils then blew it open at 51:22. Senior Cameron Roller sent a long pass across midfield to Collins, who slipped a ball between two Stanford defenders to Marui. The Osaka, Japan native beat the coverage and tapped in her first collegiate goal with her left foot over a sliding keeper.
Minestrella added the fourth in the 59th minute after a slick sequence from Courtwright and Marui on the right side of the box. She curled into the shot and blasted a right-footed one-timer into the upper 90 on the left side of the goal.
Stanford had one more threat off a corner in the 75th minute, but senior Phoebe Goldthwaite cleared it away to keep the shutout intact.
The final goal came at 78:51, when Collins was taken down in the box and a coaches’ challenge led to a Duke penalty. Oder stepped up and buried it for her second goal of the match and Duke’s fifth of the day.
The numbers only sharpened the picture. Duke’s five goals were the most ever scored against a No. 1 team in program history.
The Blue Devils have now outscored opponents 18-0 in first halves this season and scored 10 goals in the opening 15 minutes of matches. They also improved to 29-1-2 at home over the last three years.
Collins now has a goal in five straight games and six on the season, giving her 29 for her career. Her two assists matched a career high, and she has scored or assisted in six of Duke’s seven matches. Oliaro, making her first start of the season, picked up her 26th assist as a Blue Devil and 27th of her career.
Oder now has four goals this season and 11 in her collegiate career, with scoring or assisting in six of Duke’s seven matches. Minestrella’s goal was her 10th in the last 12 games dating back to last year, and her 39 career goals moved her into a tie for third on Duke’s all-time list.
Her three points also pushed her into fourth on the program’s all-time points chart with 94. In 41 career home matches, she has now scored 29 goals.
Courtwright collected her sixth assist of the season and has scored or assisted in five of seven games. Redshirt sophomore Lauren Martinho also made her first appearance of the season.
Duke had been off for 12 days, but there was no sign of rust. The Blue Devils matched Stanford shot for shot down the stretch and left no doubt about the final score.
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