Throughout her field hockey career, Liz Tchou has been taught to play the American style of hockey.
As a midfielder on the U.S. national squad, Tchou was taught defense first, offense second. Naturally, when it became her turn to be the teacher, Tchou passed on that same wisdom to her pupils.
But after a season of five one-goal losses, including two 1-0 defeats, Tchou decided it was a time for change.
"The American philosophy has been to be a little bit more defensive," Tchou said. "I think that the way I've been coached, maybe I've been a little bit too defensive-minded. This year, we're going to attack."
She spent the off-season working with the U.S. program and traveled to Holland. In Europe, she attended clinics and spoke with numerous proponents of the Australian and New Zealand attacking offenses.
Tchou was now second-guessing her lifetime of learning and ready to turn her Duke team into an aggressive offensive force.
"That Australian and New Zealand style which is much more attacking just seems much more exciting to me," Tchou said. "I started thinking that you can sort of tailor that to a Duke style because with the personnel we have and the skill level being a lot better this year, I think we'll be able to do it."
Tchou has not been alone in her quest to redefine the Blue Devils. During the off-season, Tchou hired her 1996 Olympic teammate Cindy Werley to coach the Blue Devil forwards.
Werley
Werley, who is currently a member of the national squad, has access to all the latest attacking tactics and has taught them to the Blue Devils. She is trying to teach the forwards how to move and create scoring opportunities, and based on the testimony of Werley's prize pupil, the training is going well.
"She's been incredible working with us," senior Corey Ceccolini said. "She has a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge and the things that she's teaching us are amazing.
"She's bringing more and more people involved in the offensive game so it gives everyone the opportunity to score and we're not relying just on one person. There's going to be a lot more diversity in scoring this year."
Among those most likely to get involved are Ceccolini, who led last year's team in scoring, upperclassmen Jennelle Moore and Caroline Helwig and freshman Chrissy Ashley. Ashley, who's older sister Johanna is a senior back, has not been intimidated by the college game and has made quite an impression on Tchou.
All four of these forwards have caught on to the new offense quickly, Tchou said.
"So far it's been going really well," the coach said. "They're really understanding how we need to move as an attacking unit. I think practices have been going really well and they're really getting it."
And while the forwards seem ready to blossom under this new system, what is to become of the defensive team? Tchou says Duke's one-on-one defense needs improvement, especially considering that the back line will be extremely vulnerable if the Blue Devils play a wide-open offensive game plan.
Still, Jenn Robb is back after starting every game in goal last season, and among those in front of Robb are veterans Johanna Ashley and Courtney Sommer.
Tchou knows the risks that aggressive play creates are great, but maintains that the potential benefits are well worth it.
"We're going to have an attacking mindset," Tchou said. "And as we instill this attacking philosophy, we're going to be risk-takers and it's going to make us a little bit vulnerable in the backfield, but we're just going to go for it."
Tchou is now entering her fourth year at Duke, and with the change in philosophy, she believes the program is ready to take that next step. The goal for this year's team is the NCAA tournament. Tchou says the team believes it has the talent to be in the top 10, maybe even the top five.
And while NCAA tournament berths and final rankings won't be known for a few months, one thing is immediately clear: Duke doesn't plan on losing many more 1-0 games.
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