Can things get any worse for the field hockey team?
"I never believed that our team's season would turn out like this," head coach Jacki Silar said after an emotionally draining 2-1 overtime loss to No. 13 Northeastern at the West Campus Turf Field Sunday.
In the preseason, Duke (2-6) was ranked ninth in the coaches poll and was believed to be a serious contender to reach the national championship game. Eight games and six losses later, the team now finds itself in need of a miracle win-streak to reenter the hunt for a bid to the NCAA postseason tournament.
"We're putting the first quarter of the season behind us," Silar said. "This is, by far, the most talented team at Duke that I've ever coached, but the team has had such a tough schedule, and it has had so many tough emotional games."
First the Blue Devils suffered a 3-0 shutout at the hands of No. 7 James Madison Friday. But as if that wasn't bad enough, Duke was dealt an even more emotional blow when Northeastern sealed a 2-1 victory with 18 seconds remaining in sudden-death double overtime.
Duke's main problem, once again, was its sputtering, inconsistent offense. In its last four games, all losses, the field hockey team has only managed to score one goal. Against both top- ranked North Carolina and James Madison, the Duke offense could only muster one lone shot on goal and had no penalty corners.
Part of the scoring problem is due to poor passing and receiving by Duke's forwards.
"When our forwards receive the ball, they proceed to bobble it," Silar said. "They are not receiving the ball cleanly. The ball proceeds to bounce off their stick and the opponent's defensive player gets it."
But the Blue Devils had more to worry about than just their offense when they faced JMU. The Dukes dominated from the very start of the game, mostly due to the play of JMU's freshman phenom, midfielder Carole Thate.
Imported from the Netherlands, Thate was a menace on both offense and defense, as she gave the Blue Devils fits. She scored all three of JMU's goals and was mostly responsible for its astonishing 27 shots and 13 penalty corners. Without Duke goalkeeper Kim Makalusky's 23 saves, this game would have been a blowout.
Silar had nothing but praise for James Madison.
"On the day we played them, JMU was the best team that we have played all year," Silar said. "It is a legitimate final four team, but what puts it there is the play of Thate.
"She is, without a doubt, one of the greatest Dutch players ever. She is an adult among children."
Sunday's game against Northeastern, however, was an entirely different story. Duke's defense, which had sagged against JMU, was back in form Sunday.
This was, in part, due to the return of senior co-captain Mary Lewis, who missed the entire JMU game with an illness. Though Lewis was not in top physical form, her return served as a spark for the rest of the defensive unit.
Duke's defense against Northeastern can be described with one word -- awesome. In the first half, it completely shut down the Husky offense. Lewis and junior midfielder Mary Dye broke up countless Northeastern rallies, seemingly at will.
"Mary Dye and Mary Lewis played extremely well," Silar said. "Especially Dye, she was everywhere. She controlled the game for us."
Even the offense seemed to get into the action against Northeastern. About ten minutes into the first half, Dye intercepted an errant Husky pass and drove deep to the right of the goal. She then left the ball for senior co-captain forward Laura Gentile, who smacked it past Northeastern's goalkeeper to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead.
After the score, Duke's first in four games, the team cheered as if it had finally gotten the monkey off its back. What could have been used as an emotional charge for Duke, however, instead made the team more tentative.
The goal seemed to drain all the team's energy. Blue Devil players became sluggish and sloppy, and the Huskies used this to their own advantage.
Northeastern was clearly the more energetic of the two teams, literally pouncing on balls to keep its offensive drive alive. And while Northeastern became increasingly active as the game went on, the Blue Devils fell into a slumber.
Duke only managed eight shots on goal and had only three penalty corners. In the second half, only Dye, Lewis, and freshman Jodie Taylor seem to have any sort of life left in their play. Duke's offense slowly became nonexistent, and for the majority of the second half the action took place almost exclusively in Duke's end of the field.
The Huskies finally got in the scoring column about 13 minutes into the second half. On one of the team's ten penalty corners, Northeastern's Denise Nasca shot a ball just past the outstretched pad of sophomore goalkeeper Heather Moles to tie the game at one.
But Moles was probably the reason the Blue Devils reached the overtime period. She had very little trouble stopping most of the Huskies' 13 shots on goal. In the last three minutes of the game, the Huskies had four penalty corners, all of which Moles saved or deflected.
In both overtimes, the Huskies threatened constantly, but the Duke defense somehow managed to keep the ball away from the goal. Lewis played relentlessly, simply refusing to let the defense give in.
In non-conference play, if no team can break a tie after two overtimes, the game is officially declared a tie. Until the very end, it seemed that the contest would end that way. But that's when it all came crashing down on the field hockey team.
With 18 seconds left on the clock and the game all but decided, Northeastern staged one last desperation attack. The Huskies sped down the left side of the field, eluding the Blue Devil defense. Duke finally broke up the attack, but Northeastern's Lisa Samson found the loose ball and fired it past Moles for the game-winner.
After the loss, Silar, although shocked by the outcome, was proud of her players.
"Our defense played very well, and, at times, so did our offense," Silar said. "However, our offense needs to become more consistent. We have flurries of greatness with great give-and-go's and offensive threats. We just need to get the ball in the goal."
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