Sometimes resting on your laurels is not an option.
After garnering two hard-earned victories against Harvard and William & Mary this weekend, the field hockey team (4-2) does not have much time to relax, take a deep breath and bask in the thrill of victory.
Tonight at 7 p.m., the Blue Devils will travel to Chapel Hill to take on defending NCAA champion North Carolina. The Tar Heels (5-1) present No. 7 Duke with its most formidable opponent so far. They have an extremely experienced squad that includes Olympian Cindy Werely and three other players who trained with the U.S. National Team. The Tar Heels' greatest strengths on the field are their expert, seemingly telepathic, passing and their swift right and center backs.
The Blue Devils intend to counteract No. 2 UNC's defensive machine by exploiting Carolina's weak left side with a speedy and ruthless offense. The Duke attack is led by the dynamic duo of junior forward Melissa Panasci and sophomore forward Emily Ford.
"We want to go out and be aggressive," senior tri-captain Lynn Schoenherr said. "We have a lot of speed in all positions. We can dominate their left back and midfield with our right."
During the course of the season, Duke has also improved its passing and has become more cohesive as a team-and more determined to win. However, as there is always room for improvement, head coach Liz Tchou thinks that the Blue Devils will have to balance their desire and their emotional intensity with a well-planned strategy in order to clinch the victory tonight.
"We need to be smarter in the last ten minutes of the first half and the last ten minutes of the second half," Tchou said. "The momentum shifts during a game, and those times when we don't have it we need to get the ball out and get our field positions."
Despite Carolina's winning record against Duke and its defending NCAA champion status, the Blue Devils do not feel intimidated by the Tar Heels. In fact, the two rivals have already met in a preseason scrimmage earlier, and although Duke lost the match, the team learned from the defeat.
Playing UNC before the start of the regular season enabled the Blue Devils to formulate some tactics that helped them in their early regular-season games and that should help them against their archrivals tonight. UNC is a difficult opponent, but it is not the same powerhouse that won the NCAA championship in 1995. Stronger and more skilled than last year, the Blue Devils enter tonight's contest with confidence, believing that, this year, the UNC field hockey squad is a team that is fallible and that has a few weaknesses.
"[The Tar Heel's NCAA title] is not that big of a factor when we step on the field," Schoenherr said. "Whatever team steps out on the field and plays the best is the team that will win. [Virginia] beat them; it can be anybody who beats them. Any team, any day."
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