There was the weather, there were the fans and then there was Duke.
This weekend the Blue Devils made it to the semifinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference Field Hockey Tournament, defeating fifth-seeded Wake Forest on Friday and losing a tough battle to No. 1 North Carolina on Saturday.
On Friday, the Blue Devils soundly defeated the Demon Deacons 2-0 despite the driving wind, rain and two 20 minute delays due to lightning. Throughout the contest, the Wake Forest crowd was so vocal that it seemed as if the game was being played in Winston-Salem instead of Durham. None of these adverse conditions seemed to affect Duke, however.
In the first half of play neither team was able to score-the defenses for both the Blue Devils and the Demon Deacons stifled the opposing offenses. Duke junior Melissa Panasci had many one-on-ones with Deacon senior goalie Wendy Mumford. On all of these attempts she just missed the goal, with one of the shots hitting off the goal post. Although they had many opportunities to score, the Blue Devils were unable to put the ball in the cage and the teams entered halftime scoreless.
"It can get demoralizing when you get opportunity after opportunity [to score] and all you get is a 16-yard hit," coach Liz Tchou said.
Duke used the halftime, to discuss ways to get around Mumford. Mumford was playing far out of the goal, and in the first half she had successfully shut down the Blue Devils with her aggressive play. Tchou wanted the Blue Devils to move her laterally and bring Mumford out of her comfort zone.
This plan worked to perfection as Duke was able to score two goals just 10 minutes into the second half. Both goals came off penalty corners and were scored by junior Mandy Schott. Schott, who had been injured in the first half when the ball hit her in the mouth and nose, took the ball off the rebound from Mumford's pads. Both times she placed the ball to the right hand corner of the goal to beat the outstretched Mumford. Duke kept up its intensity the rest of the game and held on to beat Wake Forest 2-0, advancing to a date with UNC in the semifinals.
"We knew we worked all year for this game and the tournament, and we wanted to show how we've worked and how much better we've become," Schott said. "Losing to Wake last year was an incentive."
Duke approached the game versus UNC with a "we've got nothing to lose" attitude. This attitude proved true in the first half as the Blue Devils took a 2-0 lead-the first time all season that the Tar Heels were down at the half.
Though at first it seemed as if UNC was going to dominate, Duke was able to capitalize on rare errors by Tar Heel goalie Jana Withrow to score the pair of goals. Sophomore Mary Jo Reider scored the first goal on a penalty corner by taking a rebound off Withrow's pads. The second goal came from senior Alison DeLeo with one minute left to go in the half when she drove the ball from just inside 25 yards. The ball ricocheted off Withrow's pads into the goal.
UNC came out of the halftime break rejuvenated and ready to score. It was imperative for UNC to come out and score early, and they did just that. Just three minutes into the second half, Carolina forward Joy Driscoll scored off a penalty corner when she shot to the bottom right-hand corner of the cage-Duke goalie Brooke Fuller didn't even have a chance.
Though the Blue Devils played strong defense throughout the game, the relentless attack of UNC eventually wore them down. The Tar Heels had 18 penalty corners in the game, and their next two goals after Driscoll's tally came off corners. UNC tied the game on an intricately set up corner when Cindy Werley shot to the upper left hand corner just out of the reach of Fuller. Two minutes later Werley scored again on the same corner set-up, but this time her shot went low and to the right. This goal gave the Tar Heels a 3-2 lead which would carry them to the end of the game.
"I thought we could've pulled it out," coach Liz Tchou said. "I'm proud of the team and impressed with Carolina."
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