By Randy Vogt, Director of Public Relations, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association
For four players from the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association (ENYYSA) and the Long Island Junior Soccer League
(LIJSL), the match-up of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons vs. the Duke Blue Devils in the NCAA women’s soccer semifinal sounds just heavenly. Number 1 seeds Wake Forest (18-3-4) and Duke (21-3-1) meet in the NCAA Final Four this Friday, December 2 at 7:30 pm in the KSU Soccer Stadium in Kennesaw, Georgia. The Deacons and Blue Devils split a pair of meetings already this season, with Duke prevailing 2-0 in the regular season and Wake Forest scoring a 2-1 win in the semifinals of the ACC Championships.
Forward Rachel Nuzzolese (Upper Brookville) and defender Caralee Keppler (Rockville Centre) were teammates with LIJSL's Rockville Centre Tornadoes and now play for Wake Forest. Midfielder/defender Madison Haller (South Salem) played for Albertson Fury ‘89 and Albertson Fury ‘90 plus defender Kim DeCesare (Massapequa) competed for the Massapequa Power and both now play pivotal roles for Duke. DeCesare also served ENYYSA as a referee.
When they were not competing for their club teams, Nuzzolese, Keppler and DeCesare all played for the ENYYSA Olympic Development Program and it was instrumental in their development.
Nuzzolese is Wake Forest’s second-leading scorer this year, registering 11 goals and 7 assists for 29 points while Keppler added one assist and helped solidify a stingy defensive unit that conceded 0.62 goals per game.
For Duke, Haller has one assist this year while DeCesare has four goals and one assist from her defensive position, including scoring the opening goal in the 3-0 quarterfinal win over Long Beach State to take Duke to the Final Four.
“I haven’t been happier, that was the most important goal I ever scored, I think,” commented DeCesare, “This is one of the happiest moments of my life!”
Duke’s defense is even stingier than Wake Forest’s as the Blue Devils have surrendered 0.44 goals per game and will look to keep Nuzzolese off the score sheet.
In the other semifinal this Friday, Stanford meets Florida State with the winners playing for the national championship on Sunday, December 4, also at the KSU Soccer Stadium.