It was a regular season to remember for Duke's field hockey team.
Under the veteran eye of first-year head coach Beth Bozman, who buillt up a highly competitive program at Princeton before coming to Duke last spring, the 2003 Blue Devils rewrote team record books and achieved status in the upper echelons of collegiate field hockey.
Duke set team records for wins in a season (17), goals in a year (90), and climbed to the highest ranking in team history--all the way to its current No. 2 ranking.
And perhaps most satisfying, Duke snapped the streak, its consecutive loses to arch-rival North Carolina at 49 games, some 22 years after it began.
Now, after all that success in a season that began four months ago in August, Duke will attempt to make its transformation from a solid top-15 team to legitimate national championship contender complete at the NCAA tournament, which begins this weekend.
The Blue Devils (17-3), seeded second overall, will play host to American University (17-3) at Williams Field Saturday morning. Duke was named as a host for first and second-round games for the first time in school history.
Richmond(18-3)-Old Dominion (13-9)--both of whom Duke beat this year--will advance to the Final Four in Amherst, Mass. next weekend. "Seeding wise, I don't think we could have asked for anything better," said Duke junior Johanna Bischof, the nation's assist leader. "We are happy to be home. It's a huge advantage."
Overall, Wake Forest, Maryland, North Carolina and Duke have compiled a 51-0 record against non-conference opponents this year, have occupied the top four spots in national rankings for most of the season and are the top four seeds in the NCAA tournament.
After spilitting two games in the regular season, the Blue Devils and the Demon Deacons last faced each other Sunday in the finals of the ACC tournament, which Wake Forest won in overtime 3-2.
"Losing [in the ACC's] was a good thing for us," Bischof said. "Because after it's over and you lost and you go home with nothing, it's a bad feeling. And I think we will remember that when we are playing."
Overall, the Demon Deacons are 18-1 on the year--their only loss coming to Duke.
"We want revenge," said Junior Gracie Sorbello, Duke's leading goal-scorer. "We want Wake Forest. We want an all-ACC Final Four."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.