Duke Field Hockey Stumbles In NCAA Second Round, 8-5

Sunday, November 16

College Park, Md.

2:00 p.m.

Duke University

Maryland (Second Round)

Duke Field Hockey Stumbles In NCAA Second Round, 8-5

11/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey

By: Duke Sports Information

COLLEGE PARK, Md. ? The No. 8 Duke field hockey team netted five goals and fired 15 shots, but the effort wasn't enough as the Blue Devils were eliminated in the second round of the NCAA Championships Sunday afternoon, falling to the hosts and top-seeded No. 1 Maryland Terrapins by a score of 8-5 at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex.

The Blue Devils found themselves down 5-1 at the half but would get it closer with the help of the senior class, as captains Laura Suchoski and Marian Dickinson each scored a pair for Duke in a second half that saw the Blue Devils out-score the Terps by a count of 4-3 and take two more shots.

Duke found itself in the second round contest after edging Connecticut by a score of 2-1 yesterday in College Park.

“Obviously we're incredibly disappointed because I think we had a good game yesterday [beating Connecticut] and we had a great season,” said head coach Beth Bozman. “When you look at that stat sheet, it was only 17-15 Maryland in the shot column and 9-8 in our favor on penalty corners, so it's hard to believe you can come out with a football score like you saw today.”

“Scoring as many goals as we had would normally be a big win for us, but it wasn't enough. Maryland capitalized on all of our mistakes and they're going to the Final Four.”

Maryland advances to the national semifinals with a season record of 20-2, while Duke ends its 2008 season 15-6 overall. The Terrapins will be playing for a chance at their third national championship in the last four years.

Maryland opened the scoring 5:25 into the contest off a penalty corner when the Terps' leading scorer, Susie Rowe, fired a hard shot from the top right past the keeper after the ball had been in Maryland's control early.

They would go up 2-0 on Rowe's second of the game 14:31 in, as she took the pass from Alexis Pappas off another penalty corner. UMD would net the next three to go up 5-0 on a pair of goals from Sarah Scholl and one from Nicole Muracco ? with Katie O'Donnell earning assists on all three goals and two came on breakaway opportunities.

Duke had some chances to get on the board late in the first half, with one big chance coming when freshman Megan Deakins dribbled up field but fired her shot far right with three remaining before halftime. The Blue Devils got on the board with their first goal of the day with just a minute left in the first on Dickinson's 16th goal of the season off an assist from Lauren Miller off a Duke penalty corner at 34:00, as Dickinson waited on the bottom left corner for Miller's pass and sent the ball into the bottom right to get Duke on the board.

The Blue Devils brought it to 5-2 on Suchoski's first goal of the day, off another penalty corner two minutes after halftime, as Suchoski took the shot from the top right past the keeper off the assist from Amie Survilla.

Maryland made it 6-2 on O'Donnell's first goal of the day as she scored off a penalty corner after finding herself open on the left. The Terps would then go up 7-2 on a score from Muracco off a loose ball at 43:26. Duke came back with another goal to cut it to 7-3 at 54:13, on Suchoski's second goal of the day and fifth of the season off a corner with another assist going to Survilla.

Maryland netted their eighth and final goal of the afternoon at 63:15, before Duke answered with the last two scores of the day. Freshman Rhian Jones netted her second of the season with an unassisted goal at 67:12, on a backhanded shot from the middle to bring the score to 8-4. It came to 8-5 off Dickinson's second goal after time had expired off another corner, the assist going to Miller.

Duke finished the day with 15 shots, while freshman Ali Comolli made four big saves for Duke in the cage as she earned 40 minutes of time for the Blue Devils.

The Blue Devils were unable to pick up another upset over Maryland, after defeating the top-ranked Terrapins 3-2 in October on Maryland's home turf. Dickinson's pair of goals brought her into a tie for third place on Duke's all-time scoring list, as she now sits at 58 for her tenure.

Duke is now 14-10 in 10 total trips to the NCAA Championships. The trip to the Elite Eight was the Blue Devils' sixth in the last seven seasons.

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