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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Lightning delayed Friday's match by an hour and 44 minutes, but it proved to be a late strike from No. 15-ranked Duke's Ashton Miller that ended the wet, rainy contest in the fourth minute of double overtime against Samford, as the Blue Devils escaped the Samford Track and Soccer Stadium with a 2-1 win.
 
"This was a tough loss for us, but Duke is a very good team," said Samford head coach Todd Yelton. "I thought our team played well. I thought they put us in a great position to at least get a point out of it, and maybe three, but I have to give a lot of credit to Duke. They are a very good team. In my mind, they are one of the best defensive units that we've seen all year. It's not the result that we wanted, but hopefully we can go from here and build on this performance."
 
Just minutes into the second overtime period, Duke (5-1-1) held possession on Samford's half of the field and earned a throw-in on the far side of the pitch.
 
The Blue Devils' Kara Wilson collected the inbounds throw and touched a quick pass over to Miller in the middle of the field. Miller then sprinted to her left, stopped on a dime and rifled a shot back to her right from 25 yards out.
 
Katie Peters, Samford's talented sophomore goalkeeper, followed Miller to the near side of the field, but the shot held such good pace that there was no way she could reach the ball placed into the top right corner of the net. Miller's golden goal proved to be her first score of the 2015 campaign. Wilson's assist was her first of the year as well.
 
"Miller just hit it extremely well to the back side and it froze Katie," Yelton said. "There was really nothing that she could have done on that ball after it was struck, but we gave her way too much time to set up and get that shot off. In a game like this, especially once you're in overtime, teams tend to get punished when they make mistakes."
 
With Friday's loss, Samford (4-3-0) moved to 4-2 at home this season and dropped to 1-1 against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents. On Aug. 30, the Bulldogs played host to Wake Forest and registered a 2-1 home victory over the Demon Deacons.
 
Samford will next be in action Sunday at 6 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs welcome Georgia to the Samford Track and Soccer Stadium for yet another key home non-conference showdown. Samford owns a 5-2 record in its last seven matches against Southeastern Conference opponents with wins against Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Auburn twice.
 
Friday's contest was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., but an incessant thunder storm in the area delayed the start until 8:44 p.m.
 
Duke outshot Samford, 23-8, in the matchup, but the Bulldogs dictated the pace of play for a majority of the game. Just 14 minutes into the match, Samford's Hallie Georgi scored her first goal of the season to give the Bulldogs an early 1-0 advantage.
 
On the scoring play, junior Malcanisha Kelley beat a pair of Blue Devils down the right sideline and sent a neat cross all the way through to the far side where Georgi was waiting one-v-one with the goalkeeper, EJ Proctor.
 
Georgi controlled the pass nicely and sent the shot back into the right side of the net for the score. Georgi's goal occurred at exactly 14:37 into the contest and Kelley's assist was her third of the young 2015 campaign.
 
Kelley, Samford's dynamic forward from Childersburg, entered Friday's match ranked No. 5 in the nation in goals (6) and No. 6 in the country in points (14). With her helper against Duke, she now owns 15 points this season.
 
"I thought we got a great effort from all of our players tonight," said Yelton. "Virginia McNeill, Olivia Cole and Anna Allen really did an outstanding job of keeping us going. They kept us out of some really difficult situations and Malcanisha Kelley, Jermaine Seoposenwe and Taylor Borman were great as well. When they get clicking in combination, they are very tough to deal with. I was happy with our group, but disappointed for them, while also being extremely proud of them."
 
The Blue Devils answered in the 30^th minute as Wilson equalized the match at 1-1 with her first score of the season. Freshman Taylor Racioppi started the play with a crossing pass that Wilson headed in for the tally.
 
Samford's Peters withstood 23 Duke shot attempts Friday finished the contest with a game-high seven saves.
 
"Duke is a very good team on the counter," Yelton said. "We struggled with that, because they do such a good job of getting the opposition stretched. It caused us some problems for sure, but I thought there was a spell there right before the end of the match when both Kaitlyn Orman and Mac (Malcanisha Kelley) nearly scored goals to win it. At the end of the day, we need to pick ourselves back up and get ready to play Georgia on Sunday night."
 
The Samford University soccer team will next be in action Sunday at 6 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs play host to the Georgia Bulldogs in another highly-anticipated non-conference matchup.
 
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