Wake Forest Travels to Duke in Regular Season Finale
11/4/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Nov. 4, 2010
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Wake Forest closes its regular season schedule on Friday night, traveling to face No. 21 Duke. Match time at Koskinen Stadium is scheduled for 7 p.m.
The Demon Deacons (8-7-2, 4-2-1 ACC) bring a three-match winning streak into the regular season wrap-up against the Blue Devils. The Deacs are coming off a 2-0 win at Davidson on Tuesday night. In its most recent conference action, the Deacons defeated Boston College, 4-3, last Saturday. Wake Forest has clinched the third seed in the upcoming Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, which will be held November 9-14 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C.
Wake Forest is led offensively by sophomore forward Andy Lubahn, who has scored eight goals on the season, including four over the last two matches. Lubahn is second in the ACC in goals and also leads the Demon Deacons with four game-winning goals on the year. Freshman Luca Gimenez is second on the team in points with 10, scoring four goals and two assists. Anthony Arena, Chris Duvall, Kyle Emerson, Ben Newnam and Danny Wenzel all have four points on the year.
Redshirt senior goalkeeper Akira Fitzgerald has played every minute of the season and has an 8-7-2 record with a 1.20 goals against average. Fitzgerald picked up his fourth shutout of the season on Tuesday at Davidson, making three saves. For the season, Fitzgerald leads the ACC with 74 saves.
Duke, currently ranked 21st in the nation by the NSCAA, is 8-4-4 on the season with a 2-3-2 mark in conference matches. The Blue Devils are currently in a three-way tie for fourth in the league with eight points. Duke has been victorious in three of its last four matches, including a 6-1 win at Virginia Tech last Saturday.
The Blue Devils boast the nation's leading scorer in Ryan Finley, who has found the back of the net 17 times and also has three assists to give him an NCAA-best point total of 37 points. Cole Grossman has added seven goals and seven assists for 21 points. Chris Tweed-Kent has a team-leading 11 assists with one goal to rank third on the team with 13 points.
In goal, Duke turns to James Belshaw, who has an 8-4-4 record with a 0.74 goals against average on the season. Belshaw has 63 saves to his credit, along with four shutouts.
Duke holds a 21-13-6 edge in the all-time series against Wake Forest, including a 10-5-3 advantage when the two teams meet in Durham. Wake Forest has had success in recent meetings, going unbeaten against the Blue Devils over the last four contests, including a 4-2 win over Duke in the third round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
Live video of Friday's match will be available through Duke's website, goduke.com. Live stats and a recap of the match will be available on WakeForestSports.com.
For all of the latest information on Wake Forest men's soccer, please log on to www.WakeForestSports.com or, for up-to-the-minute updates, follow the team's Twitter account @wakemenssoccer or www.twitter.com/wakemenssoccer.
