The Blue Devils have set a goal for themselves, and as always, Georgia Schweitzer is doing more than her fair share to see that it is realized.
With one game remaining on the home slate for the women's basketball team (24-3, 12-3 in the ACC), the objective is to not only close out the regular season with a victory over archrival North Carolina (14-12, 7-8), but to do so in front of the largest crowd ever to watch a women's basketball game in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
"I know we're trying to have a sell-out crowd and break our record for attendance," Schweitzer said. "I know I personally have about 30 people coming down from Ohio, making the eight-hour drive."
Schweitzer plans on playing in front of every coach who has ever worked with her, and those couple-dozen guests will be privy to a night that celebrates the conclusion of not just Schweitzer's regular-season career, but those of all four of Duke's seniors.
They arrived at Duke at different times, with different expectations and different roles within a program that was then just a cut above middle-of-the pack in the ACC with the promise of blooming into something much more. Four years later-or in one case five years-Schweitzer, Missy West, Rochelle Parent and Janee Hayes will receive special recognition for their career contributions prior to tonight's 7:36 p.m. tipoff between No. 7 Duke and the visiting Tar Heels.
"You couldn't ask for a better opponent to end our careers here on this court," Parent said. "It's a great rivalry, one of the best in college basketball. Georgia, Missy and I have had great careers here and we would like to end on a happy note."
The careers of Duke's four seniors will end as they began-in varying fashion. Hayes has spent her entire senior season as a student-assistant coach after her preseason pregnancy precluded her from playing basketball. West, a fifth-year player who will come off the bench tonight, actually had her senior night a year ago when the Blue Devils downed Florida State a week before West led them to their first-ever ACC tournament championship.
Much of the focus tonight, however, will be on Parent and Schweitzer, who have been the heart and soul of Duke all season long.
"It's going to be really special, I have a great time here," Schweitzer said. "Obviously it's going to be a little sad. I can't think of a better way to end than to play Carolina and hopefully have a sellout crowd."
North Carolina leading scorer LaQuanda Barksdale, however, hopes that tonight is not the end of the road for her Tar Heels. If the Tar Heels do not upset Duke tonight or make a spectacular run through the ACC tournament this weekend, they will likely be left off the list of 64 teams invited to the NCAA Championships.
UNC's need for a "quality win" will leave Barksdale and her teammates even hungrier to avenge last month's overtime loss to Duke in Chapel Hill. In that contest, the Tar Heels stormed back from a double-digit deficit and eventually tied the game in its waning moments when Barksdale launched a devastating three-pointer. Duke coach Gail Goestenkors and her upperclassmen expect the same sort of intense opposition in Cameron tonight.
"They're going to come out here and play their hearts out against us," West said. "They always do against us."
Stopping Barksdale is always the foremost task when it comes to matching up against UNC. Thus far this season, the versatile forward has averaged more than 19 points by overpowering opponents inside and dropping back to hit jumpshots from the perimeter.
Defensive stalwart Parent will be assigned the primary duties for hounding Barksdale, but the Blue Devils will likely double-down and rotate the post players through to limit the UNC star's touches.
"I think we had some defensive lapses last game; LaQuanda got some offensive rebounds and putbacks," Parent said of Barksdale, whose 31 points on 12-for-19 shooting nearly single-handedly lifted UNC to an upset in the rivalry's last showdown. "It's going to take good team defense; you don't stop a great player like her with just one person. It takes great team defense."
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