After securing recent wins against top-ten competition, the field hockey team traveled to Davidson Thursday trying to continue its five-game win streak and its domination over the Wildcats.
The team certainly succeeded in its goal with its 12-1 showing over the Davidson squad.
The Blue Devils' five consecutive wins--over Boston University, No. 3 Maryland, No. 1 Wake Forest, No. 4 North Carolina, and No. 14 William & Mary--have launched the team to a No. 2 national ranking.
With this win, the Blue Devils have a 19-3 lead in the all-time series against Davidson. Including last year's 12-0 Duke victory.
This year's scoring parade featured six players, led by junior Gracie Sorbello with five goals.
Katie Grant and Nicole Dudek each scored two goals, and Kim Van Kirk, Chrissie Murphy and Stacey Tsougas compiled one goal each.
"We had a really good passing game," Sorbello said.
Duke head coach Beth Bozman agreed, noting that freshman Hilary Linton and junior Johanna Bischof played well together in the middle. Bischof, who was named ACC Player of the Week, is the current national leader with 1.2 assists per game.
Grant went into last night's action leading the offense with 13 goals.
Despite the easier competition than Duke has seen in recent games, Grant said playing Davidson was still a challenge.
"Sometimes it's mentally harder when you play weaker teams," Grant said.
The team showed this in its Oct. 19 tight 3-2 victory over William & Mary, coming a day after a 5-0 shutout over higher-ranked UNC.
In Thursday's game, the score was a modest 3-0 after the first half. However, Duke turned up the scoring in the second half once the team found its rhythm.
"It went pretty well. We had a stronger second half," Grant added.
Despite the score, Bozman called the game "not one of their best performances."
"We are really tired [because of a] long two weeks," Bozman said.
The team will use the Davidson win to get ready for the rest of the season, including the last two regular season games, both away at No. 13 Richmond and No. 20 Virginia.
"[This win] showed us where we still need to improve [with] little things and defense, and executing when we have the chance," Sorbello said.
Bozman's thoughts paralleled the highscoring Sorbello.
"We really just tried to continue to tweak," Bozman said. "We believe in our ability to achieve great things."
Post-season competition for the Blue Devils includes the ACC Tournament in Charlottesville, Va., starting Nov. 6, and the NCAA Tournament beginning Nov. 15.
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