DURHAM, N.C. – The 2009 Duke women’s soccer campaign is here and the Blue Devils are set to kick off practice on Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m., under the direction of Head Coach Robbie Church, who enters his ninth year at Duke.

Church will guide a squad which has advanced to the NCAA College Cup Quarterfinals in back-to-back seasons and returns 7-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.

“We’re very excited as this is the best time of the year for us,” said Church.  “Really for this team, the girls have done a fantastic job preparing. We’ve been in contact with a lot of them all summer.  If they’ve been here or if they’ve been at home, a high priority on their list has been to get prepared both physically and mentally, and for some of them from a technical standpoint.”

The Blue Devils will feature four days of practices before traveling to Asheville, N.C., for team bonding and practice for three days.

“I’m anxious to bring them back, put everybody back together,” commented Church.  “It’s a great opportunity for many of the players on our team who will have a chance to change their roles from the last couple of years on the team because of graduations and some injuries that have set in here too.  I feel very, very good about this team and the direction we’re going to go in this year.”

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, Cody Newman and Ashley Rape.  

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 and Rape 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.