This year, Blue Devils will be competing across the country on surfaces of all kinds. With the various rules, terminology and unique season formats of each sport, it can be hard to keep track of what's what. The Chronicle is here to help, as we have created what-to-know guides for each of Duke's sports. Be sure to read up on every Sports 101 edition below and follow The Chronicle's coverage all year long. Click the link on each header for the full articles on every sport.
Football
As you take your seats inside Wallace Wade Stadium, here's what you need to know about football. It is a game divided into four 15-minute quarters. On offense, there are 11 players, led by the quarterback, who are trying to get the ball down the 100-yard field to score a touchdown in the end zone. On defense, there are 11 players trying to stop the offense from scoring by tackling and causing turnovers. Fans are encouraged to make noise while their team is on defense to distract opposing offenses and cause miscues. A football game features a 40-second play clock — the time in which the offense and defense choose what they will do on their respective sides of the ball. Starting this year, there's an automatic timeout during the two minute mark of the second and fourth quarters.
Soccer
"The Beautiful Game" is broken up into two 45-minute halves and played with teams of 11. Each team must score on its opponent’s goal without using arms or hands (with the exception of a goalkeeper in front of each net). Typical soccer matches are low-scoring yet fast-paced and feature various tactics to attempt to get the ball into an opponent's net.
Field hockey
The game is split up into four 15-minute quarters and features an 11 vs. 11 matchup on a field smaller than a soccer field. Players use a field hockey stick to dribble with the ultimate objective of scoring on the opposing team’s goal. Field hockey sticks feature a rounded and flat side; players must dribble with the flat side of the stick, and all sticks are right handed.
Volleyball
Indoor volleyball is typically played on a hardwood surface; Duke volleyball plays in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Each team plays in a square of 29 feet, 6 inches in width, equivalent to 9 meters in the picture below. The two sides are separated by a net with a height slightly more than 7 feet. Each end of the net is affixed with a tall rod marking the playing boundary.
Cross country
The objective of cross country meets is relatively simple: Run the distance required in as little time as possible. Races occur on a variety of different surfaces, but always outside, not on tracks. For example, the ACC Championships, held in Cary at WakeMed Soccer Complex, are run through a path of trees surrounding the complex. Races vary in terms of distances, but the three most common distances are 10K, 8K and 6K. Men typically run 8K, as they will do at the ACC Championships. The men’s race at the NCAA Championships, however, is 10K. Women typically run 6K, as they will do at both the ACC and NCAA Championships.
Basketball
After camping out overnight or just getting into the back of the walk-up line, the Cameron Crazies — Duke basketball fans — get to cheer for a 40-minute basketball game. A men’s game is divided into two 20-minute halves, while the women play four 10-minute quarters. Each team puts five players on the court at a time, with the offense trying to score by putting the ball through the basketball hoop and the defense trying to prevent that by causing turnovers and grabbing rebounds. A court is standardized at 94 feet long and 50 feet wide, with each end featuring a 10-foot tall goal with a backboard, a rim and a net hanging from the rim. The ball used in the women's game is an inch smaller in circumference.
Fencing
Fencing, the sport of sword fighting, is played on a 14-meter-long metal strip known as a piste. A competition between two fencers is called a bout. Fencers earn points in a bout by scoring touches on their opponents that are registered by an electronic machine. An electrical impulse is transmitted to the machine when the tip of a sword makes contact with the opponent’s body. Fencing is composed of three disciplines: foil, épée and sabre. Each discipline has its own unique set of rules, and most competitive fencers will specialize in only one. Foil is the basis of modern fencing and the most common discipline at the competitive level. Foil swords are lightweight and feature blunted or foiled tips. Épée is the heaviest of the three swords and has a stiff, V-shaped blade. Lastly, sabre blades are relatively shorter and more flexible.
Wrestling
A wrestling dual includes 10 contested bouts, with one at each weight class. The weight classes are 125, 133, 141, 149, 157, 165, 174, 184, 197 and 285 pounds. Weigh-ins take place an hour before the dual is set to start. An individual bout is broken up between three periods, lasting a total of seven minutes. The first period lasts three minutes, while the following periods are two minutes each.
The wrestler who earns the most points during the bout wins, and the means by which they win determines the points the team gets from the bout. Teams earn six points for a pin or a forfeit, five for a technical fall, four for a major decision victory and three for a decision victory. The team with the most points at the end of all 10 bouts wins the match.
Swim and dive
A college swim meet consists of 16 to 21 different events, in which swimmers race to score points for the fastest finishes. Men and women compete separately, with the women’s heat of any given event occurring right before the men’s. Collegiate races occur in a 25-yard long pool. Typical race distances include 50 yards (two laps), 100 yards (four laps), 200 yards (eight laps), 400 yards (16 laps), 500 yards (20 laps), 1000 yards (40 laps) and 1650 yards (66 laps, often referred to as “the mile”). Swimmers tend to specialize in either sprint or distance events, as well as one of the four different strokes.
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Collegiate divers compete in up to two events at every meet: the 1-meter dive and the 3-meter dive. Both are performed from a springboard, and athletes earn points for the execution and difficulty of their dives. Some diving invitationals, as well as NCAA Championships, include a platform dive event in which divers flip off a stationary, 10-meter-high surface.
Indoor track and field
There are 17 total events in the indoor track and field circuit for NCAA, including 10 on the track and seven on the field. Running events include sprints, distance runs, hurdles and relays, while field events are jumps, throws and combinations of the two. Many athletes compete in multiple events across the same discipline; cross country runners typically run distance events during the track and field season. A typical track and field meet, such as the NCAA Indoor National Championships, takes place over the course of two or more days. Men and women compete at the same meets but are scored independently.
Softball
College softball is played over seven innings, unless the game is tied at the end of those innings, in which case it goes into extra innings until one team scores more runs than another. The home team always starts on defense while the away team always starts on offense during what is referred to as “the top” of the inning. When the home team switches to batting, that is called “the bottom” of the inning. Each team has three outs when at bat, before the opposing team takes over. An out is recorded in a variety of situations that end in a runner not making it to a base or a fielder successfully catching the ball. On defense, each team has nine players: four infielders, three outfielders, a pitcher, and a catcher. The goal of a softball game is to score more runs than the opposing team.
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-to-ball sport, with the objective of scoring more runs than the other team. A run is scored when a runner crosses home plate, the fourth and final base. Batters most commonly reach base by hitting a pitch from the opposing pitcher — who throws the ball 60 feet and six inches away from home plate atop the pitching mound — and making it to a base before the ball is fielded properly. The game is played over nine innings, with one inning comprising two parts, the top and the bottom halves.
Men's lacrosse
What has today come to be known as the modern lacrosse game has its origins as the “medicine game” of indigenous people of North America. Ten players on each team are armed with a long stick with a net at the end for their attempts to maneuver the rubber lacrosse ball into the opponent’s goal. Helmets and padding allow for acceptable physicality throughout the match, and on-the-fly substitutions ensure that teams can make the game as fast-paced as it needs to be. The matches — played on a field about the size of a soccer pitch — typically feature teams reaching double-digit point totals across the game’s four 15-minute quarters.
Women's lacrosse
Women’s lacrosse is a game split into four 15-minute quarters, with two teams of 12 players. Each team aims to shoot the ball into the opponent’s goal using a lacrosse stick. A lacrosse stick consists of a shaft with a head strung with a net, allowing a player to cradle, check and shoot. Each team consists of a goalkeeper, four defenders, three midfielders and four attackers. Typically, women’s lacrosse features a game of 12 vs. 12, where teams use their sticks to pass and cradle the ball while advancing up the field to place the ball into their opponent’s net.
Tennis
College tennis has increasingly become a pathway for both international and American players to enter the professional ranks, and many talented players stay in school to get the experience of team competition. Each college team generally rosters between 8-12 players, often from all over the world.
In a college tennis match, there are seven total points available — one for doubles and six for singles. To start a match, three pairings of two players from each squad play one set (see the scoring section below). The school that wins two of the three sets gets the doubles point, and is said to have a 1-0 lead in the match. After a short break, six players — seeded Nos. 1-6 based on skill, with No. 1 as the top player — play singles matches in best two-out-of-three sets to determine the winner of the match.
We are updating this landing page as each sport begins its season, so check back for final additions.