The Duke field hockey team remains winless (9-8, 0-4) in ACC competition after a 2-1 overtime loss to eighth-ranked Virginia. The Blue Devils have run into a patch of bad luck, having lost three overtime games and six games by one point.
Carrie Godloe intercepted a Duke pass to score the game's first points with 16:52 remaining in the first half. The Blue Devils went into the second half down 1-0 despite being the more aggressive team. Duke outshot UVa 5-3 in the first half, while earning five penalty corners.
Duke finally capitalized on its chances when senior Angie North grabbed an errant Cavalier pass and tied the game with a goal with 12:57 left in the game. The goal was North's second of the season and the tenth of her career.
"There was an opening, and I just shot it," North said.
After seventy minutes of play, the game was still tied at one, and the Blue Devils entered their second overtime game of the week.
In the extra session, Duke earned a penalty corner, but it was Virginia who caught a break when a Goodloe shot bounced off the pads of Duke goalie Hallie Smith to Jess Coleman, who deposited the ball in the net for the game-winner with 2:47 remaining in overtime.
"I thought we played well," North said. "We just couldn't finish."
Duke's leading scorer Johanna Bischof played limited minutes after sitting out the Wake Forest game because of injury.
The Duke players are beginning to become frustrated with all their close losses.
"We can tell [the players] are getting frustrated [from these close losses]," coach Liz Tchou said. "It certainly is not from a lack of effort."
The Blue Devils played a solid second half, and were very disappointed to lose in overtime.
"We had an opportunity to win in overtime again, just like [against] Wake," Tchou said. "We're really disappointed not to come up with a win."
The coach felt all throughout the game that the team let UVa's star player Jess Coleman have too much freedom. Her premonition proved to be prophetic when Coleman scored the game winning goal.
"She's a terrific player," Tchou said.
The Blue Devils face UVa again next week at the ACC tournament.
"I'm looking forward to playing them again," Tchou said.
Before Duke can win, it must learn how to win close games. The Devils have been hampered by this problem all season.
"We just can't put our finger on [why we lose so many close games]," North said. "If we could, we would win."
The Blue Devils have played well, but, since they are competing in the best conference in the country, other teams continue to find Duke's weaknesses.
"Other teams just capitilize on our breakdowns," North said. "We're just beating ourselves."
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Tchou is not making any excuses about Duke's perceived bad luck.
"I don't believe in bad luck," Tchou said. "We've had our opportunities. We just could not put the ball in the cage [in the close games]."