NOTRE DAME, Indiana — The University of Notre Dame women’s soccer team is off for its final road trip of the regular season and another top-10 opponent awaits to start the trip. The Irish are set to face their fifth top-10 opponent on the road this season when they square off with No. 9 Duke Thursday night at Koskinen Stadium. The Irish will finish the trip with a Sunday matinee against North Carolina State in Raleigh.
Know the Opponent: Duke Blue Devils
- The Irish head down to Durham to take on the Duke blue Devils for the 17th time in school history Thursday night.
- Notre Dame holds a slight edge 9-7-1 in the series history and the Irish are 2-1 in games played in Durham.
- This will be the first visit to Durham for the Irish since 2015 when they defeated the No. 22 Blue Devils 1-0 on Oct. 25. Anna Marie Gilbertson converted from the spot in the third minute and that goal held up the rest of the game as the Irish won their 12th game of the season and tallied their 10th shutout on the year.
- The Blue Devils come into Thursday’s matchup ranked No. 9 in the country with a 7-1-6 record and a 2-0-5 mark in ACC play.
- Duke is coming off a 1-1 double overtime draw on the road to No. 14 Louisville last Friday night.
Irish Facts and Figures
- The Irish are slated to face their fifth top-10 opponent this season when they take on No. 9 Duke this week. All five times the Irish have played a top-10 team this season have been on the road.
- The Irish are in search of their first road win over a top-10 team since Sept. 24, 2015 when they toppled No. 1 Virginia.
- The last time Notre Dame defeated a top-10 team was later in 2015 when they knocked off No. 5 Virginia Tech 3-0 on Oct. 30 at home on senior night.
- Notre Dame has notched nine shutouts in 15 games this season and are outscoring opponents 26-13 this season.
- The Irish are one of eight ACC teams that currently have less than a goal per game average (0.87) through 15 games this season.
- Sammi Fisher leads the team with 15 points and is tied with Eva Hurm for the team lead in goals with five.
- Brooke Littman leads the squad with six shutouts in nine games this season. She has allowed seven goals in 830:00 minutes of game time, good for a 0.76 goals against average.
- Littman currently ranks second in the ACC in shutouts (6) and seventh in the conference in goals against average (0.76).
- 10 different players have scored so far this season after only eight different players scored during the entire 2018 campaign.
- The Irish have four players that have tallied a brace so far this season. Eva Hurm and Luisa Delgado scored twice against Northwestern and Autumn Smithers scored both goals against Western Michigan. Kiki Van Zanten was the latest Irish to tally a brace in the win over Pitt.
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