The 12th-ranked Duke field hockey team played twice at home this weekend, winning one contest and almost reversing 19 years of history in the other. The end result was a 2-0 victory against William & Mary Sunday afternoon and a thrilling 5-4 double overtime loss to No. 7 North Carolina Saturday, which extended the Blue Devil's losing streak to the Tar Heels to 57 straight games.
For a while Saturday, it looked like Duke was going to beat North Carolina for the first time since 1983.
When junior forward Stacy Tsougas collected sophomore Johanna Bischof's cross and slammed the ball past the Tar Heel goalie with a little more than five minutes left in the game to put Duke up 4-3, the Blue Devils appeared to be on their way.
But it was not meant to be.
Less than two minutes later, North Carolina freshman Naomi Weatherald's straight shot from the top of the arc hit a sprawled out Duke goalie Erica Perrier and bounced up and over her to tie the game at four and force overtime.
"We were playing for the win in overtime," head coach Liz Tchou said. "We weren't going to hold back."
Despite the Blue Devils' best efforts, however, they couldn't avoid falling to the nation's seventh best team, as the Tar Heels' Meredith Keller finished off a fastbreak to end a game that had started 97 minutes earlier.
North Carolina drew first blood, as freshman forward Karen Mann deposited a Kelsey Keeran pass past a diving Perrier fifteen minutes into the game.
Duke was quick to respond. After Tar Heel goalie Amy Tran drew a foul for sitting on the ball, Bischof sent the subsequent penalty stroke low, hard and right past Tran to tie the game at one.
Coming back from a deficit was something the Blue Devils were forced to do all day, and Tchou was very happy with the way her side fought from behind.
"I am so proud of my players," she said. "I'm just really happy that they continued to fight and had the opportunities that they did."
The Tar Heels were very successful on their penalty corners, converting two of their four attempts. The Duke players and coaches knew coming into the game how lethal North Carolina was in those situations.
"We watched video this week, and we adjusted our corner defense for their corner attack, but you never know what they are going to do," Gracie Sorbello said.
"Now we have a better idea of what they like to do," freshman Lindsay Shaw added. "But we will have a better feel for what UNC will do the second time around. We know we can win."
In the second half, it was Duke who scored first, as junior back Kim Gogola knocked home a Duke corner ten minutes into the half.
The Tar Heels pulled ahead yet again on a penalty stroke for their third one goal lead of the game.
Facing their third one goal deficit of the game, Duke roared back. Shaw scored two minutes after entering the game, and then Tsougas gave Duke its first lead of the day.
In the first seven-a-side, fifteen minute overtime, neither team could manage a serious offense surge.
But in the second period, the Tar Heels caught the Blue Devils forward, sending a long pass forward to Kerry Falgowski, who found herself one-on-one with a Duke defender. Falgowski sent a pass around an incoming Perrier and Keller finished the play off.
Sunday the Blue Devils rebounded against the Tribe behind goals from Kim Van Kirk and Sorbello. Van Kirk had the game winner, seizing a rebound off the left post and flipping the ball over the William & Mary goaltender Claire Miller for her eight goal of the season.
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