Maybe it was the cold weather. Maybe it was the new cheer they unveiled before the game. Maybe they wanted to put on a show for the rest of the conference and the larger than usual audience. Maybe they wanted to make a statement.
Whatever they were trying to do, it worked.
The field hockey played arguably its best game of the season and continued its recently strong run, which began last weekend in a victory against Virginia and with a near-win against defending national champion Michigan, the No. 2 team in the country.
The Blue Devils were running circles around an overmatched Cavalier team en route to a 5-2 victory in the first round of the ACC tournament on William Field at East Campus yesterday afternoon. The win will give the Blue Devils even more confidence as they prepare to take on No. 1 seed Wake Forest tomorrow night.
Duke was so dominant that even Virginia's head coach expressed frustration with her team's inability to perform against a team that had not won an ACC game since 1999.
"They were giving us trouble all over the field," Cavalier head coach Jessica Wilk said. "I thought defensively they were coming up with ball after ball after ball. They were shutting down our attack. They were hitting lanes on the outside of the field and penetrating well. They just really thoroughly, from front to back, did an outstanding job."
Indeed, it was a team effort, as Duke head coach Liz Tchou shared praise for all of her players after the game.
"We put it together," a smiling Tchou said. "We passed, we opened up. I thought our outletting out of the 16 was incredible. We moved the ball around. Everyone played really well and stuck to the game plan. We played at a high tempo and that really caught UVa offguard."
Yesterday's win was Duke's first ACC tournament victory since 1997, and it all started with the team's upperclassmen.
Both the coaches and the players credit them, especially the team's trio of seniors--midfielder Chrissie Ashley, defender Sarah Wright, and goalkeeper Erica Perrier--with great leadership and hard work.
But something was clarified yesterday.
Duke's underclassman are something of a new breed of Duke field hockey players, and they might be able to take Duke field hockey to the next level--that of winning conference and national championships with the likes of North Carolina and Maryland. That kind of transformation is far from certain, but the potential for this development lies in the impressive play of Duke's underclassmen.
In 2001 Duke's leading scorer was then-freshman Johanna Bischof, and this year it is a neck-and-neck race between junior Kim Van Kirk and freshmen Grant. Combined, they have 30 goals.
Cavalier coaches can speak of Duke's young prowess first-hand, as they will be likely be having nightmares of Grant and Van Kirk tonight. Together, the Pennsylvania natives combined for five goals and three assists against Virginia.
In past years--before the Liz Tchou era--Duke has languished at the middle and bottom of the ACC. But after dismantling the Cavaliers, it appears that Duke is quickly rising , or may have already arrived.
That question will be answered in part tonight against No. 3 Wake Forest.
The Blue Devils were able to keep their early season game against the Deamon Deacons close at 1-0 for most of the game before letting Wake Forest pull away with a 3-0 shutout in Winston Salem, N.C.
If they can win tonight, however, it will mean a spot in the tournament final against Maryland or North Carolina, and a chance to win their first-ever ACC title. For Tchou and the Blue Devils, a strong overall performance will be imperative against the confident Deamon Deacons.
But win or lose tonight, one thing is clear: Duke is on the verge of becoming one of the premier field hockey programs in the country.
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