DURHAM, N.C. - Head Coach Robbie Church and the Duke women's soccer team opened practice for the 2009 season on Saturday morning at the turf field on the campus of Duke University.  The Blue Devils performed testing, while also running through drills. 

The Blue Devils will feature another practice on Saturday evening and three more days of practices before traveling to Asheville, N.C., for team bonding and practice for three days.

"It was great," commented Church on today's first practice.  "I was very happy and we had unbelievable energy out here today all the way through.  Starting with our testing, into our technical work and then finishing up in our four-v-four games in our competition.  I think our girls did a fantastic job.  I thought they were really focused as it was a long and choppy practice how it was set up.  I thought we were focused, we had great energy and leadership from our seniors.  They did a fantastic job."

Church, who enters his ninth season with the Blue Devils, will guide a squad which has advanced to the NCAA College Cup Quarterfinals in back-to-back seasons and returns 6-of-11 starters along with 15 letterwinners.  The 2008 squad posted a 15-6-3 record and 4-3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) mark.

The squad received sad news this week as 2008 Freshman All-America Ashley Rape was diagnosed with a torn ACL, which was an injury she suffered 15 games into last season.  She re-tore the same ACL and had surgery on Friday by Dr. Alison Toth at the Duke Ambulatory Surgery Center.  Rape will miss the 2009 season.

Duke will be led by four captains in 2009 -- Jane Alukonis, KayAnne Gummersall, Sara Murphy and Elisabeth Redmond -- who have played in a combined 234 contests in a Blue Devil uniform.  Returning starters for the Blue Devils in 2009 include Alukonis, Gummersall, Redmond, Marybeth Kreger, Gretchen Miller and Cody Newman.  

On the offensive end, Redmond and Gummersall return after combining to score 27 goals and dish out eight assists in 2008.  The tandem are the highest-scoring duo in Duke history.  The Blue Devils also return eight other student-athletes who scored one or more goals last year. 

Miller will anchor a backfield which lost Christie McDonald, Kelly McCann and Sheila Kramer to graduation, but the Blue Devils feature junior Meaghan FitzGerald and junior Molly Lester on defense who played extended minutes in 2008. 

In goal, sophomore Emily Nahas and freshman Tara Campbell will battle for the starting job in net.  Nahas saw limited action last season behind All-Region selection Cassidy Powers.  In 116.50 minutes, Nahas allowed only one goal for a 0.77 goals-against average.  Campbell, who is from Cincinnati, Ohio, played for Ohio Elite Soccer Academy where her team were seven-time Ohio South State Champions from 2003-09 and Region II Champions in 2005.

Other returning letterwinners for the Blue Devils include Carey Goodman, Chelsea Canepa, Lynnea Pappas, Rebecca Allen and Kendall Bradley.  Duke also welcomes a stellar recruiting class that includes Kim DeCasare, Maddy Haller, Erin Koballa, Nicole Lipp, Libby Jandl, Callie Simpkins and Campbell.

The Blue Devils will only have one week of practice before traveling to Knoxville, Tenn., for an exhibition contest on Aug. 15 at 4:00 p.m., against Tennessee.  Duke kicks off the season on August 23 with a non-conference contest against Gardner-Webb in Durham, N.C.  Overall, Duke will feature 13 home contests in 2009 at Koskinen Stadium.