WASHINGTON – The No. 15 Georgetown University women's soccer team played the No. 11 Duke Blue Devils to a scoreless tie on Thursday in GU's home opener at Shaw Field. The two squads played into double overtime, but neither team could generate results. With the draw, the Hoyas move to 1-0-2 while the Blue Devils hold a 1-1-1 record.
 
"This was a tough game against another nationally ranked opponent," said Head Coach Dave Nolan. "Home or away, we knew it was going to be difficult. I mean this team made it to the College Cup last year and we knew it was a good challenge for us. I thought we played quite well. I thought we created enough chances to maybe win the game, but with that being said, they had one or two moments where they could have taken it too, but I feel overall we'd be a little more disappointed with the draw than they did."
 
The first half went back and forth between the two teams as Georgetown and Duke took nine and seven shots, respectively. With 10 minutes left to play in the first, Duke fired a shot while senior goalkeeper Arielle Schechtman (Del Mar, Calif./La Jolla Country Day) was recovering from a shot that was taken a split second before, but GU's defense managed to cover for Schechtman as she was down and saved the shot from going in the net. With one minute left in the half, the Hoyas had a chance to score on a corner but could not capitalize on it, resulting a scoreless tie at the half.
 
Less than 10 minutes into the second half, graduate student Leah McCullough (Sudbury, Mass./Lincoln-Sudbury) found herself one-on-one with Duke forward Kayla McCoy after a quick possession change, but Georgetown's captain was able to stop her before she reached Schechtman in the net. The closest the Hoyas were to scoring in the second half was when junior Grace Nguyen (Lilburn, Ga./Parkview) shot from the top of the box but her shot was saved by Duke's goalkeeper Brooke Heinsohn.
 
Schechtman's biggest play of the game occurred with eight minutes left in regulation. Duke's Ella Stevens took a shot right towards Schechtman, who managed to block the ball only to bounce right back to Stevens, who then took another shot but was stopped by the goalkeeper. Schechtman managed two crucial saves within seconds. With a scoreless tie, the two teams went into overtime.
 
The Hoyas and the Blue Devils could not manage to score within the ten minutes of overtime. Farrell took two shots but could not find the back of the net, sending the teams into a second overtime.
 
In the last 10 minutes of overtime, Duke's Tess Boade missed the top of the net as the ball hit the crossbar and bounced back towards the field, giving the Hoyas another chance at scoring. With only one and a half minutes left in double overtime, Farrell gave the Hoyas hope as her shot fired past Heinsohn, but the Duke defenders were there to block the shot while their goalkeeper was down on the ground and the game ended in a draw.
 
The Blue & Gray outshot Duke, 24-15, while the Blue Devils managed one more corner kick to Georgetown's four. Heinsohm finished the game with 11 saves while Schechtman had eight.
 
Georgetown will host Yale on Sunday at Shaw Field with a 1 p.m. kickoff. Live stats and a pay-per-view webcast will be available at www.GUHoyas.com.