Duke head coach Beth Bozman, her staff and all her players had never won a game at traditional national powerhouse Old Dominion.
It was a first for everyone as the No. 5 Blue Devils (12-3) toppled the No. 8 Monarchs (10-4) at Foreman Field 3-0 Sunday. Junior Nicole Dudek’s two goals led the way for Duke, which controlled the game from the outset.
“We played really well today against Old Dominion, and we needed to,” Bozman said. “This game meant a lot of things in a lot of different ways.... For them not to score at their place, I can’t imagine how many years its been.”
Blue Devil sophomore Amy Stopford scored her 13th goal of the season off a corner in the first half to give Duke a 1-0 lead as time expired.
The Monarchs—who had won their last seven games, including a thrilling 2-1 overtime victory against No. 4 Maryland Friday night—had a great chance to even the score at the start of the second half. Old Dominion sophomore Katie Claxton broke through into the circle and Duke goalie Christy Morgan went out to meet her. Claxton then passed the ball around Morgan to sophomore Darcy Pinchbeck, who missed a wide open net.
Dudek scored an insurance goal minutes later on a penalty corner with Johanna Bischof and Katie Grant registering assists. Grant now leads the team with 47 points.
Duke’s final goal came off of Dudek’s penalty shot with less than five minutes left in the game. It was her team-leading 17th goal, after scoring 13 last year.
“The most important thing is that we just played well,” Bozman said. “Old Dominion had a good game plan against us, but we just stuck to our game plan and really denied them a lot.”
Earlier in the weekend, the Blue Devils beat No. 16 William & Mary (10-5) 6-2 at Busch Field in Williamsburg, Va. Senior Chrissie Murphy turned in a big performance, with two goals and an assist. The speedy forward’s production lagged at the start of the season, but Bozman said she is happy to see that Murphy is beginning to play up to her potential.
“I think the last week and a half or two weeks she has really picked her game up,” Bozman said of Murphy. “She has really tweaked a couple of things and is coming into her game.”
Duke found itself down a goal early against the Tribe. But freshman midfielder Marcy Burns, who is becoming more involved in the Blue Devils’ attack, tied the score at one on a 23rd-minute penalty corner. In the second half, Duke broke the game open with three quick goals and never looked back. Lindsay Shaw played an integral role in much of the scoring, registering a goal and two assists.
The Blue Devils have this week to prepare for next weekend’s contests against Big Ten foes Penn State and Northwestern. But the real test for this team will start when the ACC, the premier field hockey conference in the country, holds its tournament in early November.
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