CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina midfielder Xan Funk tore through the Blue Devil defense and unleashed a wicked shot from the top of the circle towards the right side of the cage. With just over three minutes to play in a 1-1 game, Funk's shot zoomed towards the goal, the seeming capper on a 2-1 Tar Heel victory.
But then, out of nowhere, Blue Devil goalie Christy Morgan's right pad flashed out and deflected the ball out of harm's way.
"Christy saved the game for us with that big save at the end," Blue Devil head coach Beth Bozman said. "Christy, her entire career, has been known for big saves and she did it today."
A minute and a half later, midfielder Laura Suchoski carried the ball into the circle before she was tripped up by UNC's defenders and Duke (7-2, 1-1 in the ACC) was awarded a penalty corner.
On the corner, Marcy Burns passed to fellow midfielder Marian Dickinson at the top of the circle. Dickinson stopped the ball and midfielder Julie Tromp swatted a hard shot into the left corner of the cage, just past the effort of UNC goalie Katy Tran.
"I was not nervous," the freshman Tromp said. "I just knew I had to score.... I was tired and wanted the game to end."
The goal-Tromp's second career score-gave No. 5 Duke a 2-1 lead with 1:13 to play and No. 3 North Carolina never threatened again.
The Blue Devils' win Sept. 23 was their fourth over the Tar Heels (7-1, 0-1) in the teams' last five contests and Duke's second straight victory against UNC at Carolina's Francis Henry Stadium.
North Carolina started the scoring 21:51 into Friday night's game when Ali Tanner deflected fellow forward Heather Kendell's shot into the left corner of the cage. Duke goalie Caitlin Williams, who started the game and played the entire first half, was helpless to stop the redirection.
"I had known when you looked at possession time, we had possession time-we just needed to score," Bozman said. "I felt confident that if we stuck to our game plan we would be able to get one in."
Duke forward Ashley Pultorak validated her coach's confidence with a goal less than six minutes into the second half. Duke forced a penalty corner-one of four the team received in the second half after earning none in the first period-and forward Nicole Dudek drove a shot towards the cage. Pultorak, a freshman, tipped the shot up and over UNC's goalie and into the top of the goal.
The Blue Devils dominated game play for the remainder of the half, totaling six shots to UNC's two over the entirety of the second period, and taking three late penalty corners. Even so, Duke was unable to notch a goal until Tromp's score with 1:13 to play.
"We've been working all week on a very structured game plan for this game and we stuck to it to a T," Bozman said. "We worked on our high press and they didn't break our press very much.... We went after it, we went after it really hard."
With four normal starters in Chile playing in the Junior World Cup, Bozman sent out a starting line-up featuring four freshmen-Dickinson, Pultorak, Suchowski and Tromp. The rookies delivered for the Blue Devils, tallying both of the team's goals and one assist.
Duke picked up its second dramatic comeback win of the weekend Sunday, when it topped No. 19 James Madison, 2-1, on an overtime goal by defender Shayna McGeehan.
Against JMU (5-4), Duke entered halftime trailing 1-0. But Dudek knocked in a rebound off a shot by Suchowski to tie the game at one, and McGeehan beat James Madison's goalkeeper with a five-yard shot into the left corner, 6:23 into overtime, to give Duke a 2-1 win.
The Blue Devils controlled play for much of the game, topping James Madison 18-10 in shots and 14-5 in penalty corners.
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