[DUKE-FLORIDA STATE] No. 4 Duke beat No. 6 Florida State, 2-1, in ACC play Sunday at Koskinen Stadium to improve to 9-1-0 on the season, the Blue Devils' best start in school history

Alex Straton, Molly Lester and Chelsea Canepa came off the bench to help set up the first goal.

Straton made a great run down the middle of the field and sent a pass to Lester, who fed a cross to the front of the box, where Canepa scored from six yards out in the 40th minute.

“At the end of the first half, what a lift our bench gave us,” said Duke coach Robbie Church.  “What an absolute energy [they gave us]. They came in, sprinted, ran, scrapped, got the goal and almost got another goal from a similar cross from the outside in.  They played really, really well.  It was a good team effort.”

Freshman Kelly Cobb added an insurance goal in the 88th minute when she hit the left post, then fired the rebound just inside the right post and past FSU keeper Kelsey Wys with her team-best seventh goal of the season and fifth game-winning goal.

The goal proved to be crucial as the Seminoles came right back and Jessica Price found Janice Cayman for a header from short distance just 40 seconds later to cut the Duke lead to 2-1. 

FSU fell to 7-3-0 overall and 0-2-0 in the ACC with the loss. The Seminoles outshot Duke, 15-14. In their other losses, they also had an edge in shots (14-9 against Wake Forest and 22-11 against Portland).

“It’s a long season,” said Seminole coach Mark Krikorian.  “We tell the kids all the time that it is a marathon not a sprint.  We can’t continue to have the same type of situation where we are creating the chances and not scoring and giving up goals.  Once we start scoring goals, I think we can probably score a bunch of them.  But we need to start finishing these chances.  There are too many really good chances that we are not burying.  We will keep working and hopefully get better.”