Duke field hockey using Syracuse loss as motivation as season winds down

<p>Duke goalkeeper Sammi Steele has anchored the Blue Devil defense in net and bounced back after allowing five goals at Syracuse.&nbsp;</p>

Duke goalkeeper Sammi Steele has anchored the Blue Devil defense in net and bounced back after allowing five goals at Syracuse. 

After getting off to the best start in program history, the Blue Devils have established themselves as one of the teams that will compete for the national championship. 

This week, Duke will travel to a pair of sites it might revisit down the road if it continues achieving its goals. 

The fourth-ranked Blue Devils will travel to Winston-Salem, N.C., to take on No. 17 Wake Forest at Kentner Stadium 6 p.m. Friday before another road matchup Sunday at 1 p.m. against No. 19 Old Dominion at L.R. Hill Sports Complex in Norfolk, Va. The Demon Deacons will host the ACC tournament this season and the Blue Devils could find themselves back at the Lady Monarchs' home field if they can advance to the Final Four. 

“Just two really good teams, I mean two really good teams,” Duke head coach Pam Bustin said. “We’re going to have to bring our best game and know that they have an opportunity to compete and benefit from a good game. We’re just going to have to make sure we take care of our business.”

For the Blue Devils (11-2, 3-1 in the ACC), the weekend series continues a four-game swing away from home. Duke will look to build momentum with strong performances against the Demon Deacons and Lady Monarchs before turning its attention to a rematch at home against North Carolina Oct. 22. 

The Blue Devils will look to get back on track after splitting its two games this weekend—a 5-1 defeat against then-No. 4 Syracuse and a 2-1 win against then-No. 12 Princeton. Duke is hoping to build off of the lessons it learned in its first conference loss of the season, in which Syracuse jumped out to a quick four-goal advantage on the strength of four penalty corners in the first 27 minutes and never looked back.

“The defensive corners were definitely a problem, but they’re already been fixed. We saw a big improvement just going from Syracuse to Princeton,” junior defender Sarah Furey said. “That was a really cool thing to see in just a matter of two days.”

The Blue Devils will hope to see Alyssa Chillano continue her hot play after the defender netted two goals against the Tigers, including the winning penalty stroke in overtime. Chillano has been a force all season, tallying a second-highest ten goals on the season.

But the junior has been a weapon on the other end of the field as well. 

Chillano has served as a defensive captain of a Duke squad that has allowed just 1.7 goals per game this season. The Blue Devils backline has made life easy for redshirt freshman Sammi Steele—who has had a solid year herself in goal—and allowed the offense to capitalize in big possession advantages in many games this season. Duke averages 16.1 shots per game on average, compared to its opponents' 10.2 shot average. 

“[Chillano's] specialty skills are a gift to the team, and the more that she has the opportunity to be in those positions, the better the Duke field hockey team will be,” Bustin said.

The Blue Devils will need Chillano and the rest of the offense against a Wake Forest (6-5, 0-4) defense that gave up only one shot each half to Ohio University in a 6-1 win Sunday. The Demon Deacons may not have a stellar conference record, but they have had several close games against strong ACC teams, including Louisville, Virginia and Syracuse.

Freshman Nicola Pluta and sophomore Jule Grashoff have combined to lead Wake Forest for more points between them than the total for the rest of their teammates. Pluta has been hot recently, tallying her second hat trick of the season against the Bobcats. 

“Record I don’t think has anything to do with what’s going to happen on each of these games,” Bustin said.

After the Friday night tilt against the Demon Deacons, Duke faces Old Dominion Sunday. The Lady Monarchs are looking to reverse their current three-game skid following close losses to Virginia, Maryland and Temple.

Old Dominion (6-6) is led by a balanced scoring attack, as four players have recorded at least eight points and four goals apiece. Sophomore goalkeeper Kealsie Robles has played every minute in the cage this year for the Lady Monarchs, tallying 50 saves and holds a nearly 70 percent save rate.

But if they can get back to dominating possession against two more ranked teams, the Blue Devils will likely be able to stay at No. 1 in the RPI rankings with the postseason just around the corner.

“For us it’s really just taking care of the day,” Bustin said. “All that stuff will come later in the season, but for us it’ll be just preparing for Wake and then it’ll be preparing to beat Old Dominion.”

Amrith Ramkumar contributed reporting.

Discussion

Share and discuss “Duke field hockey using Syracuse loss as motivation as season winds down” on social media.