Duke has a number of tremendous women's sports programs, but until this year, field hockey was not among them. The Blue Devils, who face Maryland in the national semifinals tomorrow, have never been playing this late into November. After finishing 14-9 last year, the Blue Devils have had far and away their best season in school history, as they enter tomorrow's game at 19-3 having broken a litany of records along the way.
You would probably think the newfound success is attributable to a tremendous freshman class, but this is not the case; only two freshman are part of the 11-person starting lineup. Instead, after years of meandering near the bottom of an ultra-competitive ACC as a respectable, but not championship-caliber program, athletic director Joe Alleva didn't take any chances when Liz Tchou left Duke after a seven-year stint as head coach.
Instead, he hired Beth Bozman.
Bozman was not an assistant coach for the Blue Devils, and she didn't arrive at Duke fresh off success at a lesser program. Rather, Bozman arrived in Durham from Princeton, where she had established one of the sports' top programs and twice led the Tigers to the national championship game during her tenure.
Since coming to Duke last spring, Bozman has been nothing short of inspiring, creating a gulf between Duke's field hockey past and her new regime. Bozman has handed top-ranked Wake Forest its only loss of the season, ended the Blue Devil's 49-game losing streak to North Carolina, and then beat the Tar Heels again in the ACC Championships. She's also led Duke to two victories over Old Dominion, the sports' most traditionally prolific program, the second of which sent the Blue Devils to their first-ever Final Four, which kicks off tomorrow in Amherst, Mass..
I first became intrigued by Bozman after covering the mid-September victory over Old Dominion, which at the time was Duke's biggest win in several years, especially because the Blue Devils were embarrassed by the Lady Monarchs 8-1 the previous season. Following the game, she referred to last year's team as "they." It was an interesting way to think about things, and a philosophy I didn't quite grasp at the time.
After following up the Old Dominion win in September with victories over each of the other top-four teams in the nation, all of which happen to be in the ACC, Bozman's methodology quickly became more lucid.
"I've been telling them all year that it is a different team, a different time," Bozman said, elated after this past Sunday's win over Old Dominion which sent the Blue Devils to the Final Four. "Pay no attention to past records and streaks and really focus on today's game, that's what really got us here."
Bozman's players wholeheartedly agree that this is a new era for the program, and for many of them, the difference is simple.
"She has given us confidence, and I think that is something we lacked a lot last year," Katie Grant said. "She tells you that you're good, and when somebody tells you that, you have no choice but to believe it."
Bozman is undoubtedly cognizant of instilling confidence within her team. She even followed up Grant's comment, while I was interviewing the two at a small press conference, with further encouragement about how talented and fast her team is.
"We all just focused on the positive and what talent we had, and how we were going to use talent," Bozman said. "[Just] constantly talking about what we are doing right, instead of what we were doing wrong."
After demolishing Old Dominion Sunday 8-2 to reach the Final Four, the Blue Devils' confidence has never been higher. Duke will face Maryland, a team that Duke beat 3-1 earlier in the season, Friday night with a berth in the championship game on the line. Probably spurred on by the confidence fostered by Bozman, there is no team in the Final Four that the Blue Devils are scared to face.
"We know we can beat anyone in the country," senior captain Kim Van Kirk said Sunday. "It is just a matter of us coming together, and coming out strong and playing together."
There is the old saying, "what a difference a year makes." For Duke field hockey, the more appropriate proverb would be, "what a difference a coach makes."
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