While playing field hockey at Iowa in the mid-1980's, Liz Tchou had a tendency to come out ahead.
She led the Hawkeyes to three Final Four appearances and one national championship as a student there and became the first woman at the school to have her jersey retired.
On Saturday, coaching against her alma mater for the first time, she once again came out ahead. At the ACC-Big Ten Challenge in St. Louis, the No. 18 Blue Devils recorded their first win of the season, beating the 20th-ranked Hawkeyes, 2-1. Both goals came off the stick of junior Corey Ceccolini.
The first goal came 7:02 into the first half, when Ceccolini dribbled down the field and shot the ball unassisted past Hawkeye goalie Lisa Cellucci.
Scoring early in the game was a goal of Tchou's after the Blue Devils were crushed 7-0 in their season opener against Old Dominion.
"I'm hoping that we come out really strong," she said before the game. "We want to show some spark and passion."
With the first half coming to a close, Ceccolini again sent the ball into the cage, converting a feed by sophomore forward Jenelle Moore. Moore, who saw limited playing time last year, is expected to pair with Ceccolini often this season to fill the offensive void left by Melissa Panasci, Cyndi Breyer and Mandy Schott, who graduated last spring.
With under five minutes left in the first half, the Hawkeyes scored their only goal on an unassisted shot by Kelly Dolan.
In only the second start of her career, junior Jenn Robb recorded 10 saves. Robb, the backup goalie last year and the backup women's soccer keeper her freshman year, will be starting through much of this year as junior Sarah Doherty and freshman Hallie Smith recover from injuries.
The ACC-Big Ten Challenge is a tournament featuring all the schools from both leagues. Competition resumes for Duke today when it faces No. 5 Penn State at 1 p.m. in St. Louis.
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