October 13, 1981.
That would be the last time Duke beat arch-rival North Carolina in field hockey.
In their last regular season home game of 1996, the Blue Devils would like to put October 30, 1996 in the record books as the date Duke broke their ignominious losing streak.
The Tar Heels, however, come into tonight's game, which will take place on the East Campus Turf field at 7 p.m., with unmatched credentials. The defending national champs are No. 1 in the country with a 15-1 overall record, and are 7-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Earlier this season, they beat Duke 5-2 in Chapel Hill.
The Blue Devils enter the contest as the 12th-ranked team in the nation with a record of 10-7, and 2-4 in the ACC. Duke split a pair of road games over the weekend, falling to conference rival Maryland, 3-1, on Saturday and thrashing Virginia Commonwealth, 7-0, on Sunday.
The Blue Devils may be without center midfielder Cyndi Breyer, injured against Maryland, in which case freshman Keri Dunn will have to fill in.
While Duke head coach Liz Tchou recognizes UNC's on-the-field prowess, she hopes her team can capitalize on its home field advantage tonight in Duke's last home game of the regular season.
"The kids love the night games under the lights," she said. "We should have a little bit of an emotional advantage."
The Tar Heels field a talented team that includes Tchou's teammate on the 1996 U.S. Olympic team, junior forward Cyndi Werley. Tchou said the Blue Devils would have to control Werley and the other UNC forwards with double-teams and good back tackling, and then try to attack the Tar Heel backs.
"We have to be persistent," Tchou said. "We can't be overly anxious to score right away... We're looking to control the periods of time where they have the momentum but just not allow them to score."
On Sept. 25, in the two teams' first meeting of the season, Duke jumped out to a 1-0 lead early in the first half, then tied the score at 2-2 early in the second. But UNC tallied three goals in just over three minutes to gain a 5-2 advantage, which held up as the final margin of victory.
Tchou said the Blue Devils will need to improve on their second-half play today, which is something they have in their last few games, to have a chance of beating the Tar Heels.
"When we play well, we can beat any team in the country," Tchou said. "We just have to execute... It's going to depend on which [Duke] team shows up."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.