WINSTON-SALEM - Three years ago, Liz Tchou was a rookie field hockey head coach leading her squad to its second-ever NCAA berth.
This Saturday, the Blue Devils returned to the NCAA tournament with the same disappointing result-a first-round loss. The 11th-ranked Blue Devils (13-8) fell to No. 5 Michigan (18-6) at Wake Forest's Kentner Stadium, 2-1.
"It's been a great season and we came out strong, competitive and were able to fight the entire game," Tchou said. "But we had a little letdown in the second half. Maybe we were too anxious."
Michigan freshman Stephanie Johnson drove in the backbreaker off a Wolverine penalty corner with 3:36 left in the game to give the Wolverines a 2-1 lead. The goal ended Duke's hopes as the Blue Devils knew that it would take a miracle to break back and force overtime in the remaining three-and-a-half minutes of the game.
"I felt like we had nothing to lose," Johnson said of her game-winning goal. "So I hit it like it owed me money."
Duke senior Johanna Ashley had drawn first and only blood for the Blue Devils in the ninth minute of the first half off a pass from Corey Ceccolini.
Up 1-0, for the next 22 minutes, goalie Jenn Robb and the five-woman Duke penalty corner defense team staved off seven Wolverine corner shots, until a Duke defender touched a Michigan high flick with her hand.
The whistle blew and Michigan was awarded a penalty stroke.
Michigan senior Ashley Reichenbach took the shot, facing Robb one-on-one, and pushed the ball past Robb's outstretched left leg to even things up, 1-1.
"Both teams were fighting to see who was going to take control of this 1-1 game," Tchou said. "But we gave up a lot of corners and that was a huge burden on our defense."
The Wolverines took a total of 15 penalty corners in the game, compared to Duke's two. Michigan also dominated in shots, leading 13-3.
"Duke had a great corner defense," Michigan head coach Marcia Pankratz said. "We were executing well, but so were they. That's what the NCAA tournament is all about."
And although the seniors had NCAA tourney experience from their freshman year, it was a very different experience for the Blue Devils in 1999.
A new rule saved Duke from a first-round meeting with any of the four other ACC teams against which Duke had a 1-3 record. Instead, the Blue Devils were matched with first-time Big Ten champion, Michigan, in the teams' first meeting since 1991.
An experienced platoon of six seniors, who had watched the 4-1 season-ender to Virginia three years ago, took the field, not a young 1996 team just shaking off a four-year postseason drought.
But the similarities outweighed the differences, and a fired up Michigan team in its first NCAA appearance proved why the Wolverines are ranked fifth in the nation.
Tchou graduates five seniors who were freshman on that 1996 team and fifth-year senior, Caroline Helwig. But Tchou retains a strong roster and four freshmen who now have postseason experience.
"We wanted to be strong, competitive and play the entire game," Tchou said. "We absolutely went for it and this is a huge stepping stone to teach young players how to play in this kind of tournament."
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