Duke Advances to NCAA Quarterfinals with 3-0 Victory

Saturday, November 12

Durham, N.C.

11:30 AM

Duke University

American (First Round)

Duke Advances to NCAA Quarterfinals with 3-0 Victory

11/12/2016 2:13:00 PM | Field Hockey

FH vs. American: Naughton Deflection Makes It 2-0 FH vs. American: Tynan Gives Duke the Lead FH vs. American: BDN Recap FH vs. American: Chillano Scores Off Rebound Photo Gallery NCAA Tournament Bracket Season Statistics Box Score

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. – A goal from sophomore Rose Tynan with 24 seconds left in the first half propelled top-seeded Duke to a 3-0 victory Saturday against No. 19 American and to the NCAA Field Hockey quarterfinals. Graduate student forward Aisling Naughton and junior back Alyssa Chillano tallied second-half scores, while redshirt freshman goalkeeper Sammi Steele picked up her fifth shutout of the campaign.

“We came out a little bit jittery, to be honest,” said head coach Pam Bustin. “We worked our way into the game and sustained a lot of pressure on American. I thought they played a great defensive game that really challenged us and made us a bit sharper. I actually thought we got sharper with our attack and our play as the game went on.”

Duke improved to 12-3 in NCAA first-round contests and remained perfect at 7-0 when playing at Williams Field at Jack Katz Stadium. The Blue Devils have shut out opponents in three of the last four games.

Despite Duke having a commanding 13-0 shot advantage in the opening frame, the game remained scoreless through the first 34 minutes of action. It was Tynan's eighth tally of the season that broke the draw as she took a pass from Ashley Kristen on the right side of the circle and touched it across the goal line at the 34:38 mark.

“I'm really proud of the way the team just stayed persistent,” Bustin said of the game's first goal. “They didn't panic. They didn't get overly frustrated with the fact that we were putting the pressure on but not getting the result. To get the result right before the break was great.”

At the beginning of the second half, American (14-7) had another scoring opportunity, but Steele made the stop to preserve the 1-0 score. Duke finished the contest with a 24-2 advantage in shots as that was Steele's lone save of the game.

“It was really important that our forwards were involved in the defense so the pressure wasn't all on the three backs and Sammi [Steele],” said junior back Sarah Furey. “It was a whole team effort and it was really a team win to keep it to those two shots.”

Not long after the Eagles' shot was denied, Duke struck again, this time with Naughton scoring her 11th of the season, collecting a pass from Chillano on the penalty corner and hitting the back of the cage in the 44th minute.

“It's a 70 minute game, sometimes more, and you just have to stay in the moment and stay aggressive with each moment that you have to play,” Bustin added. “That's something that we have been talking about, something that honestly got us this far this season is to play where your feet are and play that game and that moment as hard as you can."

Chillano, who assisted on Naughton's goal, scored her own in the 68th minute to ice the game. Chillano pushed home another rebound to give the Blue Devils the three-goal advantage. The goal gave Chillano the squad lead with 12 this season.

“We always have an attacking mindset, throughout the whole game,” Chillano said. “When we're attacking, we have the ball. We have the attacking mindset going forward. Even when we don't have the ball, we have that attacking mindset to get the ball back, work together as a team, use our double teams and just keep that attacking mindset.”

Duke, which improved to 16-3 with the victory, awaits the winner of No. 8 Delaware and No. 9 Louisville at 2 p.m. Sunday at Williams Field at Jack Katz Stadium. Sunday's contest will be broadcast free of charge on GoDuke.com.

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