February has a way of yielding some unexpected results, and few seemed as surprising in the moment as Duke’s 13-9 loss to High Point on Feb. 6.
The Panthers have more than acquitted themselves since then, adding a victory at Virginia while only tripping up once. Meanwhile, Duke (5-1) has stitched together a four-game winning streak entering Thursday’s meeting with Loyola.
Blue Devils coach John Danowski acknowledged after the loss that his team needed work.
“You can lose and feel good about it, and you can win and feel lousy,” Danowski said this week. “This was a double. We lost, and didn’t feel good about any of it.”
Perhaps that early result could end up benefitting Duke in the long run, as it seems is often the case for a program with a history of head-scratching losses in the opening month. But for the Blue Devils, it could be a reflection of the absence of early continuity that has since developed a bit with midfielder-turned-attackman Brad Smith healthy and helping to facilitate the offense.
Smith missed Duke’s scrimmage against Ohio State and its opener, and played some against High Point. He has seven goals and shares the team lead with seven assists.
“It’s the old story of everybody wants the guy who when you look out on the field, he makes you say, ‘It’s going to be all right,’” Danowski said. “When we went to Ohio State and played well, it was, ‘Oh, we dodged this for a little while.’ It wasn’t so much dodging if the team doesn’t grow. It doesn’t build that chemistry between individuals, and other guys try to do too much. Then you see, ‘I have to do this.’ Just be yourself. That’s natural when guys try to do more than they’re capable of doing. They mean well, but that’s not always healthy for the team.”
In the last four games, Duke has edged Denver, routed a Penn team it fell to last year and claimed a four-goal win at Richmond. The Blue Devils reached double figures in each game and have not yielded more than nine goals since their lone loss. Duke welcomes Loyola and Towson to Durham this month before beginning conference play March 24.
“We’ll know more about ourselves in the coming weeks,” Danowski said. “For us, like a lot of teams, we’re a work in progress. We’re still figuring out how to get better.”