The early spring sunshine was out for all 60 minutes of Duke’s bout with Virginia, but it was Darcy Bourne and Piper Hampsch who shined the brightest.
The Blue Devils made the trip to Charlottesville, Va., Friday to take on the Cavaliers in each squad’s first matchup of the spring field hockey season. After a scoreless first half at Turf Field, Bourne’s two goals and Hampsch’s career-high seven saves lifted Duke to a 2-0 victory.
“If I were to go to who could help set the tone first I’m going to go with Piper, because the first quarter she made some really important saves and important decisions when Virginia came out real strong and put a lot of pressure on us,” head coach Pam Bustin said.
Hampsch was simply phenomenal for the entire afternoon, with the freshman continuing to eclipse her former ceiling with each passing matchup. She got off to a rocky start this season, but the Massachusetts native has now logged three shutouts in her past four games dating back to the fall, and appears to have fully adjusted to collegiate play.
“I think the way that Piper held down the first quarter was extremely important to us getting the momentum and then building on that,” Bustin said.
While Hampsch served as the backbone for Duke’s performance, fellow freshman Bourne stole the show five minutes into the second half.
Thanks to a pinpoint pass from sophomore Kelsey Reznick, Bourne found herself with room to work with as she streaked down the left side of the field. It initially looked like she had overrun the goal and wouldn’t have the angle to shoot, but then the England native decided the traditional rules of physics didn’t apply to her, flicking off a David Beckham-like bending shot into the back of the net to give Duke (3-7, 1-0 in the ACC) the 1-0 lead.
“The combination between Kelsey and Darcy was awesome,” Bustin said. “And then Darcy’s poise to get the ball where it needed to be to take the shot was awesome. That lit us up for sure.”
But just as any good secret agent would do, Bourne didn’t stop until the mission was completed. With nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, she added in an insurance goal to put the final nails into Virginia’s coffin and send Duke home with a celebratory bus ride.
Like Hampsch, Bourne went through some rough patches to start her college career. But after not scoring until the seventh game of her freshman campaign, Bourne has now strung together a four-game goal streak dating back to the fall season, and her performances have only gotten better.
Bourne’s two goals against Virginia (4-8, 0-1) marked the first multi-goal outing of her career, and Duke is going to need her recent play to continue if it wants to contend in the ACC and keep its NCAA tournament chances alive.
The Blue Devils have a two-week break until they play Wake Forest March 19.
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Jake Piazza is a Trinity senior and was sports editor of The Chronicle's 117th volume.