Although No. 12 Duke defeated New Hampshire 7-1 Sunday, the weekend was tarnished by a 7-0 loss to No. 2 North Carolina Saturday. The Blue Devils were shut out by their archrivals in Chapel Hill, leaving them winless in the ACC.
“We were tired after midterms but that’s not an excuse. We knew what a big game this was,” head coach Beth Bozman said. “We were very reactive to Carolina instead of being proactive.”
The Blue Devils (5-4, 0-2 in the ACC) were dominated in every aspect of the game as they suffered their worst loss of the season. The Tar Heels (10-0, 1-0) outshot the Blue Devils 23-3 and had nine penalty corners while Duke had none.
“I think everyone was scared,” senior tri-captain Amie Survilla said. “Playing at UNC, it’s a very intimidating atmosphere. They have hundreds of fans.... Being a senior, I’ve played there several times and it can be very intimidating if you’re not mentally prepared for what’s about to hit you.”
The Tar Heels scored early Saturday on their first penalty corner of the game as freshman Jaclyn Gaudioso Radvany knocked in a pass from Melanie Brill at 1:06. Later in the game freshman Kelsey Kolojejchick added two more goals for the Tar Heels.
Despite North Carolina’s top-two ranking, the Blue Devils are convinced that they underperformed Saturday.
“Carolina is very talented—I think they’re one of the top two teams in the country and we just didn’t arrive,” Bozman said. “We played them in preseason and played even with them. I think we know it’s in us, we just need to actually arrive at the field next time.”
Duke came out strong Sunday against the Wildcats (5-3) as junior Susan Ferger scored the first of her three goals at 4:19. Duke took a commanding lead toward the end of the first period when Survilla scored first at 8:05, then added two quick goals at 26:42 and 27:10.
On her second score of the day, Survilla received a pass from midfielder Chelsea Amsley and buried a shot from close in. Thirty seconds later, after a restart, Survilla scored again off a pass from Megan Deakins.
“The goal I scored from Chelsea was basically textbook,” Survilla said. “We’ve been practicing the mids hitting it from the outside of the circle into the circle all week and we finally got it to work.”
The Wildcats scored a goal early in the second period, but th Blue Devils answered with three more to close out the game. Survilla finished with four goals on the day.
“Today everyone played great,” Survilla said. “It was a great morale lifter from yesterday.”
Next weekend the Blue Devils travel to Boston to take on No. 9 Boston College and Boston University. Duke is still looking for its first conference win of the season.
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