Branford, Conn., is only a few miles down I-95 from Fairfield University.
So when the field hockey team travels to Fairfield, Conn., over fall break, team scoring leader and Branford native Corey Ceccolini will be returning home.
The 12th-ranked Blue Devils (7-5) will play a trio of games at Fairfield University Field, beginning with two Ivy League opponents and finishing up against Fairfield.
Duke has been struggling on both sides of the field lately. Last weekend at Williams Field, the Blue Devils were unable to overcome the offense of No. 3 Maryland in a 3-1 defeat. They were also unable to penetrate second-ranked North Carolina's defense, which held Duke to only one shot on goal in a 3-0 rout.
The Blue Devils fired only three total shots in the two-game series, all of which were taken by Ceccolini. Ceccolini has recorded 12 goals already this season and with one more goal will tie Duke's all-time single-season goals record. She would tie with four former Blue Devils, the last of whom, Tamara Gehris, achieved this feat in 1995.
And while Ceccolini's contribution on offense is never in question, Duke's greatest challenge this weekend will be to extract more offensive play from its other forwards. After Ceccolini, the next highest scorer on the team is junior Courtney Sommer, who has contributed four goals.
"Corey's been scoring a lot of our goals," coach Liz Tchou said. "We need to spread that out, and others need to pick up the slack. We can't rely [only] on Corey."
First up for the Blue Devils this weekend is Yale (3-5), which is currently riding a three-game losing streak. Tomorrow's matchup at noon will be Duke's first game on the road since Sept. 11.
Duke has only faced the Bulldogs once in school history. Ceccolini contributed two assists to help the Blue Devils come away with a 2-1 win last season at Williams Field.
The Blue Devils will then clash with 16th-ranked Princeton (6-1) Sunday at 3 p.m. The Tigers dominated last season's meeting as they outshot Duke 12-5 en route to a 2-0 shutout.
Duke concludes its three-game Fall Break against Fairfield (6-5) at 1 p.m. Tuesday. The Stags went through a streak of seven consecutive overtime games earlier in the season. It will be the first-ever meeting between the two teams.
All of the teams are relative question marks for the Blue Devils and Tchou said that the fact that only one of the three is ranked nationally won't make this weekend's task any easier.
"It's actually more of a challenge," Tchou said. "We haven't scored much in the past two games and we haven't played the way we wanted to.
"I want competitiveness this weekend," Tchou said. "We're going for broke out there."
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