Tara Campbell’s palms were sweating, KayAnne Gummersall was more tense than she had been in four years and head coach Robbie Church spent all day nervously checking his phone.
With only eight wins in the regular season and an eighth-place finish in their conference, the Blue Devils (8-8-4) had reason to worry heading into the NCAA tournament selection show. But when all was said and done, Duke received its seventh consecutive national postseason berth. Eight ACC teams made it into the 64-team field, led by No. 1 seeds North Carolina and Florida State.
“This is the happiest I’ve ever been,” Church said. “It hasn’t been an easy season.... We finally found out who we were, found the right formation and found the right combination of players.”
The Blue Devils were placed in the Tar Heels’ regional—which was announced third of four—leaving the team anxiously waiting through the selection of the first 32 teams. When Duke’s regional was announced, the ESPNU news feed malfunctioned and showed a bracket with no team names before finally revealing the Blue Devils.
“When it popped up on the screen and the names weren’t there, I couldn’t even believe it. I felt like I was in a movie,” Campbell said. “Then when the name popped up I wanted to cry, I was so excited.”
Duke will travel to Columbia, S.C. to play its first round match Friday against Rutgers. Seniors Elisabeth Redmond and Sara Murphy have both played on club teams with numerous players on the Scarlet Knights, lending the team extra familiarity with its first opponent.
Should the Blue Devils beat Rutgers, they would face the winner of No. 2 South Carolina and Davidson. Duke has been placed in the same subregional as the Gamecocks for the past three years and played South Carolina in the first round of the 2007 tournament. The two teams played to a 1-1 tie and the Blue Devils advanced on penalty kicks.
The rest of the regional includes three other ACC squads: North Carolina, No. 3 Wake Forest and No. 4 Maryland. Duke lost to the Tar Heels and Terrapins this year, but battled to a scoreless tie against the Demon Deacons.
Despite the difficulty of the draw, the Blue Devils are excited to play another day, and have reason to be optimistic. Duke has advanced to the national quarterfinals each of the last two seasons, even after a similar eight-win campaign in 2007.
“We’ve made it to the Elite Eight the past two years and I think that we definitely want more and definitely can achieve that,” said Gummersall, a senior. “Everybody’s going to be really excited. It’s nice knowing, just practicing these next few days, that we’re definitely practicing towards something.”
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