KENNESAW, GEORGIA – Success in college sports has a lot to do with recruiting.

 

While that seems like a no-brainer, one can’t get a better illustration than how quickly good recruiting can pay dividends than from Tony Da Luz’s Wake Forest Demon Deacons and Robbie Church’s Duke Blue Devils. Slated to meet here Friday in the College Cup semifinal, neither ACC team is likely to have a senior in their respective starting lineups. Players have come in and contributed, immediately.

 

Both coaches say the ongoing trend to recruit players at younger and younger ages makes this even more difficult. Church said building a championship team therefore requires a lot of investigative work to find out about a player’s character and other intangibles involved in creating good team chemistry. Da Luz joked that he has been planning this year’s team for “10 or 12 years,” but acknowledged that a lot of accurate projecting is needed for a team to come together as well at such a high level.

 

The teams have split a pair of matches so far this season. Duke beat Wake Forest in Winston-Salem 2-0 in the regular season, while the Demon Deacons got revenge in the ACC Tournament semifinal with a 2-1. 

 

Wake Forest has had an excellent offensive combo on the field in the form of Katie Stengel (19 goals) and Rachel Nuzzolese (11). Da Luz supplements that with a lot of guts and good, that is, hard-working players who fulfill all the necessary roles in defending, ball-winning and facilitating the offense’s success. Aubrey Bledsoe has been good in goal as well, recording a school-record 14 shutouts this season. Da Luz emphasized his team’s dedication to attacking from all positions particularly noting the active attacking mindset of outside backs Jackie Logue and Alisha Woodson.

 

Duke spreads the offense around just a bit more. Freshman Kelly Cobb (11 goals), and sophomores Kaitlyn Kerr (10) and Laura Weinberg (8) made up a scoring triumvirate, with Gilda Doria and Mollie Pathman providing excellent service. Tara Campbell is strong in goal for the Blue Devils, behind starting defenders Libby Jandl, Erin Koballa, Maddy Haller and ACC Defender of the Year Natasha Anasi.

 

Campbell said that while the defensive unit, like the rest of the team, is young, it has become fairly veteran through its playing experience.

 

“As a group we have something rare in a back line in the fact that we have had so much experience together. We know each other’s tendencies and to know that is excellent, and that helps us be such a strong defensive unit,” she said. “The advantage that we have now is our experience. We had to come in and play as freshmen and got so much experience being thrown in with the wolves.”