DURHAM, N.C. — NC State men’s soccer fell short of working its way out of a four-match slide, losing to No. 15 Duke 2-1 at Koskinen Stadium on Friday. 

After recently falling to ranked teams such as then-No. 15 Notre Dame and then-No. 6 Wake Forest, the highly-ranked Blue Devils (8-3-1, 3-3 ACC) gave NC State (6-8, 1-5 ACC) another challenging test. However, even after recently coming off a surprising midweek loss to American, the Wolfpack gave Duke all it could handle in a tense showdown in Durham.  

“To be fair, I thought there was some good progress here,” said head coach George Kiefer. “We just played one of the best teams in the country and went toe to toe with them. So there’s a lot to build on for sure.”

NC State came out with energy, earning quality chances on goal that were engineered by a cadre of Wolfpack attackers — junior forward Luke Hille and senior forward Henrique Santos kept the pressure on the Blue Devils all night. 

Amidst some dangerous counterattacks from the Pack, Duke quickly established an oppressive offensive effort, highlighted by a lopsided 14 corner kicks comparedcompred to NC State’s three. 

Along with the set pieces, the Blue Devils bombarded freshman goalkeeper Samuel Terranova in his first career start with 22 shots, 12 of which were on goal. Eventually, the onslaught of corners paid off and Duke drew first blood in the 15th minute off a header after a set piece. 

NC State was able to draw level before halftime, though. Thanks to its strong counterattack and ability to press quickly off turnovers, the red-and-white finally capitalized on one of its opportunities in the attacking third. 

After the Pack’s first shot of the sequence was blocked, junior midfielder Will Buete rocketed the ricochet past Duke’s keeper to make it 1-1 heading into the halftime break. 

While NC State took advantage of its few opportunities in the first half, the Wolfpack failed to follow up on the rhythm it had established after halftime. Meanwhile, Duke scored via the set piece again in the 58th minute, forcing the red-and-white to play from behind once more. 

Duke clung to its 2-1 lead for the rest of the match, despite NC State getting a few more chances late in the half. The most notable chance was denied by a questionable — and unreviewable — offsides call that called off a one-on-one between Hille and the Duke keeper. 

While NC State ultimately failed to put another past the posts, the Wolfpack still went toe-to-toe with an impressive Duke squad, earning encouraging chances against one of the nation’s best.

“If you look at the chances we created, I thought there were enough solid chances to at least have two [goals] on the board,” Kiefer said. “And if you’re gonna go on the road and create that many chances, there’s something to be said about us and how quickly we got forward.”

After leaving goals on the table against Duke, NC State looks to emerge from its four-match losing streak with a midweek match against High Point. 

“I think we’ll bring a lot of stuff from this game into the next game,” Buete said. “I thought we played well. So we’ll grow from this into the next game against High Point.”

The red-and-white will return to Raleigh for its match against the Panthers, and kickoff is set for Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m.