See you later Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs. Take a hike demons. The drought, the streak-whatever you want to call it-is over.
After 49 straight games of frustration, almosts and losses to arch-rival North Carolina, Duke's field hockey team finally broke through in a very big way yesterday, routing the visiting Tar Heels 5-0 in a non-conference match Saturday afternoon in front of an overflow crowd at Williams Field.
The Blue Devils' record is now 12-2 (1-2 in the ACC), which represents the best start in the program's history.
"What can you really say?" said a smiling Duke head coach Beth Bozman. "It was just a great day for Duke hockey.
And while a Duke win did not necessarily surprise the Blue Devils, according to Bozman, the margin of victory might have taken the coach by surprise.
"Did I ever imagine it was going to be 5-0?" she asked. "Would anybody? And the kids probably did not either, but they were pretty motivated to play today and they came to play. It was great."
The last Blue Devil victory against the Tar Heels was a 2-1 win in 1981, when Jimmy Carter was still in office and no one on the current Duke roster had been born yet.
"A fantastic game, it really was," said President Nan Keohane, who was in attendance along with her husband, Political Science Professor Robert Keohane. "They [the Duke players] were so fired up. They are so good. They had so much passion. That was very exciting, great to watch them play. We are very proud of this program right now."
And while all of the Blue Devil players and coaches have repeatedly downplayed the streak this season, it was clear that they are happy the monkey on the backs is gone and vanquished.
"That streak is over," Bozman said. "We are all happy it is over-and over in pretty good fashion."
Bozman's players echoed her sentiments.
"It is nice that a reporter will never ask again about the streak," said senior captain Kim Gogola.
Saturday's win also continues to validate the hiring decision of Bozman, as the program appears to be finally breaking into the top rungs of college field hockey after wins last week against ACC rivals No. 1 Wake Forest and No. 4 Maryland.
"We were so delighted that we were able to recruit Coach Bozman, and we look forward to a wonderful future for Duke field hockey for quite some time," President Keohane said.
Bozman and her squad, currently ranked third in the latest National Field Hockey Coaches Association Poll, are now in a position to possibly receive the team's first top-ranking in program history.
"Duke comes in last year at No. 9, and most of these kids, the only ACC team they have ever beaten was Virginia," Bozman said. "Now look at what we have done. It is phenomenal."
Saturday's result was the opposite of the teams' first meeting several weeks ago in Chapel Hill, which the Tar Heels won 4-1 and left a large impression on Duke, Bozman said.
"I think really since we played North Carolina, that was a big eye opener for us," she said. "We did not secure a plan for 70 minutes, we had a couple weak spots in the lineup, and you make a mistake against a team like North Carolina, and they are really gonna punish you. And we got punished bad. [The Duke players] came back with a new mentality to fix things and elevate their level of play to their ability, and [the team] fixed things and is a vastly different team then it was a couple weeks ago."
The game was scoreless for almost the entire first half as both teams went back-and-forth until a disputed call with 2:34 left in the period gave Duke a chance to score first in the form of a penalty stroke.
A North Carolina player batted a ball down that appeared to be headed towards the back of the Tar Heel's net while she stood in front of the goal.
The dispute by North Carolina coach Karen Shelton was whether the ball would have scored if untouched or not; if not, Duke should have received only a penalty corner, said Bozman and Gogola.
Duke's Johanna Bischof, who also assisted on Duke's fifth goal of the game, finished off the stroke, as she directed a hard, knee-high shot to the left portion of the goal, faking the Tar Heel goalie into not moving laterally in the process. Bischof now leads the team in assists with 17.
Still, the game's outcome was very much in doubt in the first part of the second half. The score became 2-0 when Duke's Nicole Dudek was able to out-muscle several North Carolina defenders in front of the Tar Heel goal and put the rebound of the shot of teamate Kim Van Kirk past Tar Heel goalie Katy Tran.
From there both teams had chances to score-Duke had 16 shots to North Carolina's 11 on the day-but it was the Blue Devils who took advantage of their opporutunities. Duke sophomore Katie Grant and senior Jessica Fluck essentially put the game out of reach when they scored back-to-back goals within 27 seconds of each other some seven minutes after Dudek's goal.
Junior Gracie Sorbello made it 5-0 with roughly four minutes left, slamming a shot past Tran off a penalty corner.
In addition, Duke's goalie, sophmore Christy Morgan, recorded four saves in the game and her sixth shutout of the season.
All of which left the Blue Devils estatic about their performance.
"We put it all together," said Van Kirk. "We put 70 minutes together. The results show for themselves. It is nice to get rid of this streak that is talked about all the time. It was such a good feeling, everyone was playing with heart, playing together, playing to win. We just knew if we played together, we would come out and we'd win. we all had each other's backs today and i think that really showed."
Fellow Blue Devil Gogola had the same assesment, although she put a little bit differently.
"Every single person on our team played out of their heads," Gogola said.
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