CARY, N.C. -- Defenses of different styles but stiflingly similar results clash when No. 1 Penn State faces No. 3 Duke in Sunday's national championship game (ESPNU, noon ET). But that isn't the only battleground as the Nittany Lions and Blue Devils seek a first title.
Here are three more areas of note.
1. Penn State playing on the road
This isn't usually much of a factor in the College Cup, a neutral-site event. Even when nearby North Carolina won recent titles in 2003, 2006 and 2008 in Cary, the crowds on those occasions were perhaps swelled by the team's presence and vocally favored the locals, but only to a mild degree. That wasn't the case Friday night, when a sellout crowd not only filled the stadium but lent it a partisan atmosphere -- surprisingly so, given Duke's modest home attendance.
"Walking into that stadium last night rivaled any atmosphere that I've been in during my career," said Penn State coach Erica Walsh, a former assistant with the U.S. national team. "As a head coach, it was the best atmosphere and environment I've been part of."
Officials said even more tickets had been sold for Sunday's final, a crowd of more than 11,000 that would trail only the 1999 final (also in a year the U.S. won the World Cup) in NCAA history.
The longer the game is level, or if Duke scores first as it did against Florida State, the longer the Duke support is likely to dominate. That matters only so much to events on the field, but even if it matters a smidgen, championships can be decided on such scant margins.
2. Duke's game-changing potential
The tournament, but especially the national stage offered by the semifinals, has made Duke's defense the story. But it is the team's attacking talent that makes it so. First, Duke's forwards and attacking midfielders are willing to track back and play defense. But more important, they have the individual talent to break down elite opposing defenses on the counter. A lot of teams try to play on the counter; not a lot of teams have that second piece of the puzzle.
Also for much of the tournament, but again especially against Florida State, junior Toni Payne has been the revelation, with blinding speed and good touch combining to torment opponents.
"She has sacrificed a lot of her offensive game for the team," Duke coach Robbie Church said. "And she knew that over her first two years we were giving up too many goals to be able to advance to an environment like this -- and it is not only Toni, but all of our attacking players have. The bigger the game, the better Toni plays."
She might reprise the starring role Sunday, but it's worth noting that Duke has options there, too. Freshman Taylor Racioppi made things a little too complicated at times against the Seminoles, but she has the skill to break through the Nittany Lions. So does Imani Dorsey.
Duke's team defense is its hallmark, but its individual skill could win the day in the final.
3. Penn State's supply and demand
Penn State sophomore forward Megan Schafer wasn't a prominent figure in the team's semifinal win against Rutgers, which might help explain why Walsh reiterated Saturday a displeasure with the execution, if certainly not the effort, her team showed against a patient, disciplined defense.
"We didn't break them down as often as we had hoped," Walsh said, her study of the film not altering the sentiment she expressed immediately after the match. "But I really feel like we can take a look at what we did [against Rutgers] and build on it. I believe we can take [it], develop it and grow for [the final]."
Slowed in the midfield, Penn State struggled to supply Schafer with the kind of service she craves as a target forward. The leading goal scorer among all the teams in the College Cup, Schafer has the potential to put a hole in the wall that has been Duke's back line. Schafer is a workhorse who has played more minutes than any of the four players in the most advanced positions for Penn State. If she can establish herself, and the Nittany Lions can supply her, where Florida and Florida State were unable to with Savannah Jordan and Cheyna Williams, respectively, cracks will spread in Duke's defenses.