There is no place like home.
The No. 12 Duke field hockey program discovered that this past weekend as it traveled to Philadelphia for two non-conference victories. The Blue Devils (9-6) shut out Temple 6-0 on Saturday and knocked off Villanova 5-2 on Sunday to the delight of Duke-dominated crowds in both contests.
Since most of the Blue Devils' families live in the area, Duke enjoyed bigger crowds this weekend than in "home" games in Durham. The Blue Devils took advantage of the support to notch two emotional wins.
Duke did not allow the fans to become a distraction. Rather, the Blue Devils were able to control their energy and capitalize on all the enthusiasm.
Prior to the action, however, the coaching staff was concerned that Duke might lose its concentration.
"We knew it was going to be exciting," head coach Liz Tchou said. "We hadn't seen our families all year. But at the same time, we couldn't afford to get overly anxious and excited to the point that it affected our skills. We had to focus our energy in a positive way."
The Blue Devils did just that in Saturday's win over the Owls (6-9). Junior forward Melissa Panasci put Duke on the scoreboard at the 16:16 mark of the first half on a penalty corner. The Blue Devils had a number of scoring opportunities in the first half, but were only able to take a 1-0 lead at the half.
This was cause for concern for the coaching staff, which has found Duke in this position a few times earlier in the season and wound up with a loss.
This prompted assistant coach Antoinette Lucas to speak up at halftime. She asked Duke where it wanted to be at the end of the game and challenged the Blue Devils to take control of the contest.
The Blue Devils responded to the challenge, scoring five unanswered goals in the second half and shutting down Temple defensively. Panasci added another goal and teammates Mandy Schott, Emily Ford, Jodie Taylor and Stacy Wallick all chipped in goals for an offensive explosion in front of friends and family.
"We get a lot more excited," Taylor said. "We play hard for the team and for our families."
The fans returned for Sunday's action against Villanova and were not disappointed. Once again, however, it took Duke the entire first half to adjust to the Wildcats style of play.
"The challenge to the Villanova game was the style of play," Tchou said. "They packed it in on defense which made it hard for us to play our game."
With the score deadlocked at halftime, the coaching staff tried to give the Blue Devils some helpful advice.
"When it was 0-0 at the half, we told our players to get down and dirty with them," Tchou said. "Villanova was hitting the cover off the ball and we needed to back off of it and execute."
Duke was apparently listening at halftime, for the Blue Devils came out stronger in the second half. The defensive battle quickly became an offensive showdown once the two teams adapted to the style of play. Seven goals were scored in the second half. Fortunately for Duke, the Blue Devils scored five of them.
Panasci scored two more goals while Taylor, Mary Jo Reider and freshman Johanna Ashley each tallied one. Ford and senior Ali DeLeo contributed four assists apiece.
With her four goals this weekend, Panasci has moved into second place on the ACC career goals list. Her 18 goals this season gives her 65 for her career. She needs only six more goals to become the ACC's most prolific goal scorer of all time. Individual achievements, however, are not on the junior's mind right now.
"I'm just ecstatic about this weekend," Panasci said. "It was great to have all of our families around to see us play as well as we did."
Panasci and her teammates will have a few days to celebrate the successful weekend but will then have to refocus their energies on No. 5 Maryland. Duke will be on the road again and hopes that it can duplicate the effort of this past weekend.
Just how close is College Park to Philadelphia, anyway?
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