Duke Field Hockey Earns First Win of 2008, Splits Tournament Games

Sunday, August 31

Louisville, Ky.

11:30 a.m.

Duke University

vs. Delaware

Duke Field Hockey Earns First Win of 2008, Splits Tournament Games

8/31/2008 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey

By: Duke Sports Information

LOUISVILLE, Ky. ? Amie Survilla scored a pair of goals to lead the Duke field hockey team to a 2-0 win over Delaware in the consolation game of the Champions Challenge tournament Sunday afternoon at Trager Stadium.

The win was the first of the 2008 campaign for the No. 12 Blue Devils (1-1), who fell narrowly to No. 17 Louisville Saturday in the opening round game by a score of 1-0. Duke was able to come away with the weekend split thanks to Survilla's offense, as the junior forward notched two goals on six shots.

"I thought this was much better than our performance yesterday,” said head coach Beth Bozman. “We were able to get into our gameplan and execute. We still missed a couple of key scoring opportunities, but any time you can keep a team scoreless and shot-less, that's pretty good."

Delaware (0-2) dropped its first game of the weekend to No.10 Michigan State on Saturday by a score of 3-2. After managing two goals against the Spartans, Delaware was unable to find the net against Duke and did not even get a shot off against the Blue Devil defense.

Survilla got Duke off to a good start, taking the ball down the field for her first goal just 12 seconds into the contest to put the Blue Devils on the board early. Her second came just before halftime at the 34:22 mark, as freshman Rhian Jones fed it to Survilla off a penalty corner. Duke was up 2-0 heading into the locker room, which is where it would stay after a scoreless second stanza.

The Blue Devils led in the shot category 17-0, firing off eight in the first half and nine in the second, and edged out the Blue Hens in penalty corners 11-0. Freshman Tara Jennings and senior Laura Suchoski each took three shots while sophomore goalkeeper Samantha Nelson recorded the shutout.

With the win, Duke improves to 7-0 all-time against Delaware.

Michigan State defeated Louisville in the championship game Sunday by a score of 6-1 to win the tournament for the third time in five years.

Next up for Duke is a pair of contests next weekend as the Blue Devils travel to face American University on Sept. 6 at 3 p.m. EST, followed by a match-up with Iowa on Sept. 7 at 2 p.m. EST. Both games will be played in Iowa City.

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