CHAPEL HILL - The streak is up to 41.
The field hockey team was held to just one shot, a penalty corner in the game's opening minutes, while dropping its 41st consecutive game to the Tar Heels, 4-0, yesterday at Francis Henry Stadium in Chapel Hill. North Carolina controlled possession for almost the entire game, while completely throwing Duke off its game plan.
"We shut Duke down basically," UNC coach Karen Shelton said. "We played exceptionally well as a team. We controlled the ball, we dominated play.... Our forwards put a lot of pressure on them and didn't allow them to string too many passes together. It was a pretty good domination out there today."
But the Tar Heels have been dominating Duke for much longer than that. The last time the Blue Devils beat North Carolina, Ronald Reagan was in his first year of office. In the history of the rivalry, UNC is now 56-1 against their neighbors from Durham.
"Carolina is a good team and they take teams out of their game plan," Duke coach Liz Tchou said. "We came out of our game plan. We stopped passing to each other and we started to play a little panicked. We have to feel confident in moving the ball around."
Although the Blue Devils are moving toward a more aggressive style of play, they simply could not muster any offense Sunday. They had just one penalty corner and very few legitimate scoring opportunities.
The defeat was an ugly way to finish what began as a promising weekend. In their season opener Saturday, the Blue Devils overcame a 1-0 halftime deficit and beat William & Mary 3-1.
Although Duke's first half offense was sluggish and unable to create a decent scoring chance until 30 minutes into the game, the Blue Devils bounced back in the second.
The offense took control of the game and finally created penalty corners and shot opportunities. Corey Ceccolini scored the first two goals of the year in a span of nine minutes and Melissa Yuppa added an insurance goal with 3:02 left in the game.
"[In the first half] I definitely think we felt some of those first-game jitters," Ceccolini said. "We weren't connecting very well and our movement at forward wasn't as on as it's been during practice games.
"I think in the second half we came a little bit more ready, a little bit more focused. We just knew that we needed to attack and we just worked really hard to get the ball into the circle to draw fouls and get shots on goals."
And while a victory in the opener was nice, there's no question as to which game Ceccolini and her teammates wanted more.
"They've been our rival forever," Tchou said. "Every game we want to beat them, and we will one of these days. But we have to be more consistent."
Duke's offense struggled to generate any kind of offense for most of the game. The Blue Devils were outshot 16-1 and the Tar Heels generated seven penalty corners to Duke's one.
The Blue Devils were able to hold off the furious Carolina attack early, but with 22:33 minutes left in the first, Abby Martin's penalty stroke to the top left of the cage sailed beyond the reach of Duke keeper Hallie Smith and into the back of the cage.
Ten minutes later the Tar Heels converted a penalty corner and took a 2-0 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The second half was no better as the Blue Devils rarely strung together more than two successful passes. And when the final buzzer sounded, it put an end to what was one of the more discouraging losses during the streak's recent history.
"I'm frustrated that we don't play the way we can play for 70 minutes," Tchou said. "That's what frustrates me. I don't care who the opponent is. We just have to be more consistent than that."
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