After losing to No. 3 Wake Forest 3-0 in Winston-Salem Friday night, the field hockey team rebounded in a big way, defeating No. 9 Northeastern in dramatic style 3-2 Sunday afternoon.
After falling into a 1-0 hole, the Blue Devils were able to dig themselves out behind goals from Katie Grant and Gracie Sorbello. The situation looked eerily similar to Friday's contest, when No. 13 Duke also played most of the game down 1-0.
Against the Huskies, the Blue Devils had different plans.
With five minutes to go in the game, Grant finished off a delicate Chrissy Murphy cross to give the Blue Devils their first lead, 2-1, of the game.
"It was a perfect ball," Grant said.
The Blue Devils then appeared to relax after Grant's goal with the game's outcome seemingly determined.
The Huskies did not play along.
Thirty seconds later, the Huskies struck back, as Liane Dixon rocketed a backhanded shot into the upper left corner past a diving Erica Perrier.
But the Blue Devils did not stop playing either. A minute later, Gracie Sorbello drove a ball past the Huskie goalie off a Duke corner netting her first goal and 3-2 Blue Devil lead.
Up until that point, the Blue Devils had either shot the ball or faked once off their corners. The Sorbello goal, however, utilized a double fake, much like a double reverse in football.
"We had called that option [off the corner] earlier in the game and it had worked," Sorbello said. "We knew it was going to be there."
Northeastern got onto the scoreboard first 12 minutes into the game when forward Sarah Broderick drove a shot off a penalty corner between Perrier's legs from 10 yards out.
But unlike Friday night, where the Deacons scored two goals late to put the game out of reach, the Blue Devils were able to come back.
"We struggled early in the first half," said head coach Liz Tchou, "but we were able to build the ball out of the back in the second half and have some success."
The Northeastern lead stood up until Stacy Tsougas collected Kim Van Kirk's diving pass at the top of the circle and pushed it past the Huskie goalkeeper with 20 minutes left in the game.
"Their goalie came at me and I just went around her," Tsougas said.
After that scoring ceased until the final five minutes when Duke grabed the lead.
Tchou said she was proud of the way her team responded, and Tsougas thought the Blue Devils played better because they "had a better feel in the second half for what Northeastern was doing."
Perrier had only two recorded saves on the day but kept the Blue Devils in the game for most of the first half.
She foiled several breakaways in spectacular fashion, colliding with the Northeastern players, even sending a Huskie player off the field after one hard collision. She also recorded ten saves against Wake Forest.
Duke outshot Northeastern 15-9 and had 11 shots in the second half. Tchou pointed to that statistic as evidence for a better second half effort.
This is Duke's second win against the No. 9 team in the country. The Blue Devils downed then-No. 9 Louisville last week, 2-1.
Up next for Duke is archrival North Carolina Saturday. The Tar Heels have not lost to the Blue Devils in nearly 20 years.
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