Blue Devils Post 5-3 Win Over Old Dominion In NCAA Tournament First-Round Action

Nov. 13, 2004

Box Score

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The fourth-ranked Blue Devils defeated 12th-ranked Old Dominion by a 5-3 score in the first round of the NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship at North Carolina's Francis E. Henry Stadium. Junior Nicole Dudek and senior Chrissie Murphy each scored two goals and junior Katie Grant had two assists and one goal.

Duke's All-ACC forward Nicole Dudek had two early scoring chances, the first coming when she found an opening to the right of the cage. The junior wound up and fired, but her shot glanced off the inside of the post and skipped away. With 15:49 to play in the first half, Dudek again had a chance, but her attempt was thwarted by a defensive save by Old Dominion's Sami McLeneghan.

With 9:13 to play in the half, the Blue Devils earned a penalty corner. Gracie Sorbello sent a shot towards the cage, but Monarch goalkeeper Mary Cate Gordon sprawled out to make the save. The rebound popped up in the air and Grant swatted it into the net to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead. Less than five minutes later, Dudek collected the ball right in front of the cage and had her first attempt denied by Gordon, but Dudek stayed with the play, gathered her own rebound and slid it under the ODU goalie to put Duke on top, 2-0.

At 29:09 of the second half, ODU's Janelle Engle fired a shot but Sorbello interrupted it. The ball squirted to ODU's Caroline Nichols who shot it past Duke goalkeeper Christy Morgan to cut the Blue Devil lead to 2-1. Old Dominion appeared to be ready to knot the score, earning two more quick penalty corners, but just inside the 20-minute mark, Duke got an insurance goal. Dudek took a feed with her back to the goalie and went one-on-one. She was unable to find an angle, but teammate Chrissie Murphy had slipped in behind Gordon. Dudek found Murphy, stuffed it inside the post to stretch the margin to 3-1.

With 7:59 remaining in the second half, ODU's Shannon Mobley got open in the circle and shot, but Morgan denied the attempt. The rebound bounced right back to Mobley, who converted on her second try and again the Monarchs were within one goal, but after that, Duke put things away. With 5:02 remaining, Katie Grant drew the ODU goalkeeper out of the cage and then slipped it to Dudek who buried it for her second goal of the game. One minute later, Grant dished out another assist, this time finding Murphy, whose shot glanced off Gordon's pad and found the back of the cage to give the Blue Devils a 5-2 lead. Caroline Nichols scored her second goal of the game on a penalty corner as time expired to make the final score 5-3.

Duke will face rival North Carolina tomorrow at 2 p.m. at Henry Stadium. The Tar Heels were 3-0 winners over Richmond in the first game of the day. The winner of the Duke-Carolina game will advance to the NCAA final four at Wake Forest University next weekend.