Charlottesville, Va., has not been kind to Duke this season. But if the Blue Devils want their season to continue, they will have to find a way to win a pair of games there this weekend.
Duke earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament field, as announced Sunday by the tournament selection committee. The Blue Devils will take on Stanford—which beat Duke in overtime in the teams' second game of the season back in August—Saturday at 2 p.m. at Virginia's University Hall Turf Field in the Round of 16.
“It’s always an honor to be a part of the postseason tournament,” Duke head coach Pam Bustin said in a press release. “You start in January working on the goals and having that vision. You don’t know what can happen throughout a season and what things can come up, and after 17 regular season games and a lot of practices and a lot of hard-fought competition, I think it’s awesome that this team has put itself in this position. I’m really proud of the team for bringing Duke back to the NCAA Tournament.”
The trip will be the Blue Devils' second to Charlottesville in as many weekends after falling to the host Cavaliers—the No. 3 overall seed in the tournament—5-1 in the ACC tournament quarterfinals Thursday.
Should the Blue Devils (12-6) defeat the Cardinal, they are guaranteed another rematch in the Elite Eight in the form of either Virginia or Delaware. Two of Duke's six losses this season have come at the hands of the Cavaliers, but the Blue Devils dismantled the Blue Hens in Durham.
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