Duke Edges Wake Forest, 3-2, To Advance To Third Straight Championship Game

Friday, November 18

Louisville, Ky.

7:30 p.m.

Duke University

Wake Forest

Duke Edges Wake Forest, 3-2, To Advance To Third Straight Championship Game

11/18/2005 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey

By: Duke Sports Information

LOUISVILLE, KY. ? The No. 4 Duke field hockey team upset No. 2 Wake Forest, 3-2, Friday evening, earning its third consecutive trip to the national championship game and ending a three-year streak of losing to the Deacons in the NCAA Tournament. Down 1-0 at the half, the Blue Devils rallied with three goals in nine minutes in the second half to pull out the semifinal victory at Louisville's Trager Field.

Duke and Wake Forest played nearly a scoreless first half that was dominated by defense, but the Deacons put a point on the board with just 30 seconds to go for a 1-0 halftime advantage. Christine Suggs took a shot on goal, which Duke senior Christy Morgan saved, but after a scramble in front of the goal, Michelle Kasold rebounded on the right side and pushed the ball into the net.

The same combination who scored the winning goal against Connecticut Sunday to send Duke to the semifinal game evened the score, however, on Duke's first shot in the second half with just under 21 minutes to go. The Blue Devils drew their second corner of the half, and junior Hilary Linton sailed a pass from the top right side of the circle to senior Katie Grant, who waited at the goal's right corner to hit the ball in, earning her 24th goal of the season.

Senior Nicole Dudek put the Blue Devils up two, scoring two goals within 1:07 of each other. With 13:06 remaining in the game, Grant sent a pass across the circle to Dudek, who converted it to a goal to put Duke up for the first time. Less than a minute later, the Blue Devils earned their fourth corner, and Dudek nailed the direct shot, assisted by Grant as the pusher and freshman Marian Dickinson as the stopper.

With her second assist of the game, Grant upped her career tally to 63 to match the Duke record set by Johanna Bischof, who graduated last year.

The Deacons tried to start a comeback, drawing three back-to-back corners in just over a minute. On the third one, Kelly Wood sent a high shot into the goal to pull within one with 3:04 to play in the game, but the final score would remain 3-2.

The Blue Devils will face No. 1 Maryland in the championship match Sunday at 12:30 p.m. The Terrapins defeated Old Dominion, 3-2, in the first semifinal Friday.

Press Conference Quotes: Head Coach Beth Bozman and Seniors Katie Grant, Nicole Dudek

Opening Comments

Bozman: “Well, we're certainly happy to be here after two tournaments losing to Wake Forrest and just knowing the level they play. Its great to beat them, but it speaks volumes for our team because we know we had to play and it was really going to be a battle and it was. I couldn't be prouder of this group. “

On what changed in the second half

Bozman: “We basically knew we were doing one thing wrong that we had talked about that was part of our game plan so we just adjusted it at halftime ... and really just stuck to our game plan. This was just a consummate team effort, everybody back on defense, everybody on attack. That's why we won this game because it was 18 people working today."

On what was going through minds during the 9 minute run where Duke scored three goals

Grant: “We had a really crucial game a couple of weeks ago against Maryland where we got up a goal and felt that was a good enough cushion. We stopped our attack so then today we just kept focusing on attacking. That was our goal after we scored our second goal, just keep attacking, keep attacking and then we put that third one in and we still kept attacking.”

On whether fast field was an advantage

Bozman: “I think both teams play really fast games and it was really back and forth in the first half. Rush to that end and play and then rush to this end and play. It's just the style that both schools play. I don't know that it helped us, it's just the way we play."

On special significance in beating Wake

Dudek: “It meant a lot to us. We came into this game really prepared and I thought that everybody played together. For the seniors to beat them, it's too bad it wasn't a national championship, but at least we get to be there.”

Grant: "I agree, it is just a great feeling. They're a great team and we had a loss to them at the beginning of the season but we knew this was going to be a huge challenge, something we've been facing for two weeks. We definitely felt prepared and I think we definitely played a whole 70 minutes which was really important.”

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