50 Stories from 50 Years of Duke Women's Varsity Athletics
GoDuke the Magazine
1976
Volleyball
Well before the age of NCAA-sponsored women’s sports and scholarships for women at Duke, the volleyball team created a buzz on campus with the first magical postseason run for a Blue Devil women’s squad by reaching the AIAW nationals and finishing with a 36-6 record — still the most wins in school history.
1978
Track & Field
Duke didn’t have a varsity track program for women but that didn’t deter Ellison Goodall, who frequently trained with the men and represented her school at numerous national meets — including the venerable Penn Relays, where she won the 3,000 meters title.
1981
Swimming
Duke wasn’t awarding swimming scholarships but made an exception for Nancy Hogshead, who as a high school senior had qualified for the 1980 USA Olympic team that boycotted the Moscow Games. She tore up college competition her freshman year with four ACC titles and two All-America finishes at nationals (then later became a star of the 1984 Olympics).
1984
Golf
Hosting the ACC’s first women’s golf tournament, Duke swept the team and individual crowns on its home course. Medalist honors went to future Hall of Famer Mary Anne Widman, one of her school record 12 titles as a Blue Devil.
1990
Basketball
Back in 1986, Duke guard Carolyn Sonzogni had swished a last-second shot to beat North Carolina 79-78 at Cameron. Three years later she died in a tragic car accident, and the Duke team dedicated its 1990 season to her memory. In the home game with UNC, guard Leigh Morgan hit a last-second shot from almost the exact same spot of Sonzogni’s 1986 heroics to give the Blue Devils a 90-88 win.
1992
Soccer
Just five years after the program was born, Duke defeated Virginia to reach the College Cup (final four) for the first time. The Blue Devils knocked off Hartford in the semifinals to earn a date in the national championship game, but fell to UNC on the Heels’ home field.
1994
Volleyball
One of the great coaching runs in program history came to an end when the Blue Devils fell to UCLA in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Coach Jon Wilson’s club won the ACC regular season and tournament in each of his last four years (1991-94), with three undefeated ACC seasons, a 39-3 regular season league mark and a 12-0 record in the ACC tourney. Nine of the tourney matches were over in three sets.
1994
Soccer
North Carolina owned college women’s soccer and had never lost a home game until the Blue Devils went to Chapel Hill and ended the Tar Heels’ 101-match unbeaten streak with a 3-2 victory.
1995
Basketball
With three seconds left Ali Day took an inbounds pass from Jen Scanlon, wheeled and shot from the left baseline as the clock hit one second. The ball bounced five times on the rim as the clock expired and 5,000 fans at Cameron waited breathlessly to see if it would drop through the net. It did, and Duke owned a 74-72 victory that ended a 32-game winning streak by defending NCAA champion North Carolina.
1995
Basketball
Duke and Alabama locked horns in an absolute classic NCAA Tournament game on the Crimson Tide’s home floor, with the Blue Devils ultimately succumbing 121-120 in four overtimes, despite a then-school record 37 points from Ali Day.
1998
Tennis
After falling to Stanford two straight years in the NCAA semis, Duke finally edged the Cardinal 5-4 to earn its first visit to the national championship match. The Blue Devils couldn’t finish the deal, falling to Florida, but star player Vanessa Webb brought home the first NCAA title trophy for a Duke female by cruising through the singles tournament with six consecutive straight-sets victories.
1999
Basketball
Tennessee had won three straight NCAA titles and featured the best player in the nation in Chamique Holdsclaw. But upstart Duke held her to 2-of-18 shooting and upset the Lady Vols 69-63 to reach the first Final Four in school history, elevating the program onto the national scene.
1999
Golf
Led by a second-place individual finish from freshman Candy Hannemann, Duke broke through and claimed the first of its seven NCAA golf crowns — and the first national women’s team title in school history. Duke handled the pressure of being ranked No. 1 most of the season and finished with eight tournament titles for the season.
1999
Lacrosse
Only four years old, the Duke lacrosse program edged sixth-ranked James Madison 11-10 to advance to the final four. The Blue Devils came back from an 8-3 deficit and got the game-winning goal from ACC rookie of the year Kate Kaiser inside the last five minutes. The seniors on this team went from 3-12 their freshman year to national semifinals their last season.
2000
Track & Field
Duke hosted the NCAA outdoor championship meet at Wallace Wade Stadium and it provided a national launching pad for Blue Devil pole vaulter Jillian Schwartz. Seeded 18th of the 21 competitors in the meet, she enjoyed a stunning career night at her home facility to take third place, earn All-America honors and qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials. Schwartz graduated the following year as the Duke record-holder and three-time ACC champ, and eventually competed in two Olympics.
2000
Tennis
It was bound to happen sometime, and that time was April 5, 2000. The Blue Devils dropped a 6-3 decision to Wake Forest, ending one of the most remarkable winning streaks in Duke (and ACC) history. Duke had not lost an ACC tennis match since 1989, a run of 116 consecutive conference victories. Duke went the entire decade of the 1990s undefeated in the ACC, regular season and tournament.
2001
Golf
After helping Duke win its first NCAA team title as a freshman in 1999, Candy Hannemann became the program’s first individual NCAA medalist her junior year when she won a playoff with Arizona’s Lorena Ochoa.
2002
Basketball
After losing to South Carolina in overtime in Durham early in the season, the Blue Devils won 27 of their next 28 games before running into the Gamecocks again, at an NCAA regional in Raleigh. This time Duke prevailed 77-68 as a team with only eight players advanced to the Final Four.
2002
Golf
With a dramatic late surge, the Blue Devils made up nine shots on pace-setting Arizona over the final three holes to claim their second NCAA team title in four years. It capped a spring in which the squad won every tournament it entered. Duke also had the individual national champ in Virada Nirapathpongporn, who carded a 279 score that tied for the lowest in NCAA history at the time.
2002
Lacrosse
Duke enjoyed one of its best regular-season wins by upsetting five-time defending NCAA champion and top-ranked Maryland, 9-8. The result ended a 43-game unbeaten streak for Duke coach Kerstin Kimel’s alma mater, and helped vault her Blue Devil squad to No. 1 in the nation for the first time in program history.
2003
Basketball
Meeting UNC in the ACC final for the third time in four years, the Blue Devils got 21 points from MVP Iciss Tillis and 20 rebounds from Alana Beard to post a 77-59 triumph that gave them an unprecedented fourth straight ACC Tournament championship.
2003
Tennis
Reaching the final of the National Team Indoors for the third time in six years, the Blue Devils finally edged fellow power Florida 4-3 for their first title in this event — and subsequently moved up to No. 1 in the nation for the first time in school history.
2004
Field Hockey
Chrissie Murphy’s game-winning goal gave Duke a 2-1 victory over No. 1 North Carolina to send the Blue Devils to the final four for the second year in a row. A big win over Michigan State propelled the team into the national championship game, where it fell to Wake Forest for the second year in a row.
2004
Basketball
Fourth-ranked Duke rallied from a 20-point first half deficit and knocked off two-time defending NCAA champion UConn on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by sophomore Jessica Foley. The result ended a record-sharing 69-game homecourt winning streak by the Huskies.
2005
Cross Country
Led by a dazzling six-woman senior class, Duke had seven of the top 11 finishers at the ACC championship race and posted a record-tying score of 20 points to win its second consecutive league title. Ranked No. 1 nationally all year, the Blue Devils were undefeated until they finished third in the NCAA meet. (The 20-point mark still has never been bettered in an ACC championship.)
2005
Field Hockey
All-time scoring leader Katie Grant netted the game-winning goal in a 3-2 double overtime victory against UConn to send the Blue Devils to their third straight final four. In the national semis, Duke got past a Wake Forest program that had beaten them in the previous two national title games. This time another ACC foe ended their season in the final — Maryland, by a 1-0 count.
2005
Track & Field
Former Duke track coach Norm Ogilvie called it the biggest win in the history of the program when his middle distance unit anchored by future NCAA champ and Shannon Rowbury won the premier event at the Penn Relays, the distance medley relay (DMR). Meaghan Leon, Lindsey Owen and Lauren Matic handled the first three legs, then Rowbury took the lead and secured the prize with a strong kick down the back stretch.
2005
Golf
At the NCAA Championships in coach Dan Brooks’ home state of Oregon, Blue Devil Anna Grzebien enjoyed one of the best rounds in tourney history when she fired a 65 to help her team turn a nine-stroke deficit into an eight-stroke lead entering the final 18 holes. She finished first, as did her Blue Devils, to give Duke a sweep of the team and individual national crowns for the second time in three years. The NCAA win was Duke’s ninth team title of the season — not bad for a squad with only five players on the roster.
2005
Golf
Duke has won so many regular season golf tournaments that it’s nearly impossible to feature one of them. But how about this for the remarkable category: At Stanford’s tourney in the fall of 2005, the Blue Devils enjoyed total domination over a field that included five top-10 teams. Duke had the top three individual finishers, posted a school record score of 271 over the final round, finished in first place by 27 strokes — and gave coach Dan Brooks his 92nd tournament victory, making him the all-time Division I leader. (The record now stands at 140.)
2005
Lacrosse
Led by national player of the year Katie Chrest, Duke knocked off rivals North Carolina and Virginia at Ravens Stadium in Baltimore to win the ACC Tournament for the first time. Then they dominated UNC 15-7 to earn a trip to the NCAA semis, in what would be the first of four straight final fours for coach Kerstin Kimel.
2007
Basketball
“If she’s not the national player of the year, I’d like to know who is.” That was Maryland coach Brenda Frese describing Duke star Lindsey Harding after her career best 29-point performance lifted Duke over the Terps to clinch the ACC regular season title. Harding previously had scored 28 to beat No. 1-ranked Maryland in January. Harding led Duke to the first undefeated regular season ever for an ACC women’s team (29-0), before the Blue Devils tasted their two defeats at the wrong time of the year — in the ACC semis and the NCAA Sweet 16. They finished 32-2.
2007
Golf
When it comes to NCAA repeats, rare is the word. But a three-peat? It’s only occurred twice, most recently by the Blue Devils when they claimed their third straight NCAA crown at Daytona Beach in 2007. Amanda Blumenherst, Anna Grzebien and Jennie Lee all placed among the top seven individuals to make it happen.
2007
Track & Field
Fifth-year standout Shannon Rowbury wrapped up her college indoor track career in a blaze of glory by claiming the NCAA title in the mile run, the first NCAA track trophy for a Duke woman. About 90 minutes after that race in Fayetteville, Ark., she went after a second title in the 3,000 meters and placed second, less than a second behind the winner. That gave the future Olympian six career All-America citations, more than any other Blue Devil trackster male or female.
2009
Tennis
After years of dominating the ACC and advancing deep into the NCAA Tournament, the Blue Devils grabbed the top prize by defeating California 4-0 for a long-awaited national title. Freshman Mallory Cecil added the NCAA singles championship and the Honda Award as national player of the year.
2011
Track & Field
Running just her third collegiate 10K, sophomore Juliet Bottorff used a 67-second final lap kick to race to the NCAA championship, finishing almost five seconds ahead of the field. It marked the first outdoor NCAA title for a Duke woman.
2011
Diving
Abby Johnston stood in fifth place after the preliminary round of competition in the 3-meter springboard diving event at the NCAA Championships. But a series of superlative dives in the finals catapulted her to the top of the leaderboard and she became Duke’s first ever swimming & diving winner at the national meet. The future Olympian earlier had earned her second straight ACC diver of the year award.
2012
Fencing
Becca Ward arrived at Duke in August of 2008 after winning two medals at the Beijing Olympics and she never stopped winning in four years as a Blue Devil. She concluded her remarkable career in 2012 with a record of 272-7 and her third NCAA sabre championship, becoming the first three-time individual champion in that weapon. Ward was the runner-up the one year she didn’t win the title.
2013
Basketball
Duke overcame the loss of star guard Chelsea Gray down the stretch to post an historic 33-3 (overall)/17-1 (ACC) season that included a three-game sweep of North Carolina, also a Top 25 club that year. One of the reasons the Blue Devils were able to survive without Gray was the inspired play of her freshman replacement Alexis Jones, who stepped up with 24 points in the ACC championship game against the Heels to earn tourney MVP honors.
2013
Field Hockey
Duke had fallen to Maryland in the last game of the regular season and in the ACC semifinals. But the Blue Devils turned the tables on the top-ranked Terps in the NCAA semifinals for a 3-2 victory that sent them to the national championship game for the first time since 2005.
2013
Volleyball
Talk about a comeback — No. 15 Duke trailed No. 14 North Carolina 2-1 and was down 22-14 in the fourth set before rallying to tie the match. The Blue Devils then fought off match point in the fifth set and claimed a 3-2 victory to finalize an 18-2 ACC campaign and outright league championship.
2015
Soccer
Duke was barely over .500 during the ACC season (4-3-3) but coach Robbie Church had his club primed for the postseason. Playing at No. 1 seed Stanford in the NCAA quarterfinals, Duke advanced on penalty kicks when sophomore goalkeeper E.J. Proctor stopped two Cardinal shots in a shootout. Then Duke pulled of a stunning upset of another No. 1 seed, defending NCAA champ Florida State, in the College Cup at Cary, N.C. — with Toni Payne creating an unforgettable celebratory moment on a last-second goal to punctuate a 2-0 triumph that sent the Blue Devils to the final (where they faced a third straight No. 1 seed and fell to Penn State).
2016
Field Hockey
It was No. 2 Duke vs. No. 4 UNC going head-to-head in Durham like they have so many times. This one became a first-timer for the Blue Devils, however. When they finished off an impressive 3-0 victory, the Devils were the ACC regular season champs and the No. 1 seed for the ACC Tournament for the first time in school history.
2017
Soccer
Kat McDonald’s goal in the 87th minute gave Duke a 1-0 victory at Virginia to close out the best regular season in school history. The Blue Devils finished a perfect 10-0-0 in the ACC for a regular season crown and took a 17-match winning streak into the postseason, which culminated in another College Cup. Duke posted 18 shutouts during an 23-2-1 season and did not allow a goal in five NCAA matches. The year ended in a penalty kick shootout with UCLA at the College Cup.
2018
Golf
Duke swept the ACC team and individual championships for the 17th time. The medalist was senior Leona Maguire, who outdueled teammate Jaravee Boonchant in a playoff to grab her third career conference title. Only one other previous golfer won three ACCs — Duke alum Amanda Blumenherst (2006-08).
2019
Rowing
The 20th anniversary season of Duke rowing turned out to be its best as the Blue Devils captured their first ACC gold medal when the V4 boat finished first at the league championships. Duke also earned four silver medals to take second place overall in the team standings.
2019
Golf
Freshman Gina Kim delivered a near-miraculous approach shot from the bunker to set up a birdie putt on the 18th hole that helped Duke defeat defending champ Arizona in a morning semifinal. Then sophomore Miranda Wang got the clinching win on the 20th hole in an afternoon final against Wake Forest as Duke claimed its seventh NCAA title (and first since a format shift to match play). The win enabled senior Virginia Elena Carta to bookend her career with championship hardware, as she had won the NCAA individual title her freshman year of 2016.
2021
Softball
In only its fourth year of existence, the Duke softball team posted a series of three one-run victories to claim its first ACC Tournament championship. Pitching was at a premium as the Blue Devils blanked Clemson 1-0 in the title game behind a sterling five-inning, three-hit performance from starter Shelby Walters. Senior Peyton St. George then retired all six batters she faced the last two innings and was named tourney MVP. St. George previously had a complete-game win in the semis and a victory in relief of Walters in the opener.
2021-22
Track & Field
Duke had never won an ACC track & field team title before going back-to-back with the 2021 outdoor co-championship followed by the 2022 indoor co-championship. In both instances, the final result came down to the last race of the meet, the 4x400 relay — a Duke specialty. During the outdoor meet in Raleigh, fifth-year star Brittany Aveni anchored a school-record showing in the relay that enabled Duke to tie Florida State for the team crown. This year at the indoor meet at Virginia Tech, fifth-year Lauren Hoffman made her move on the last turn and took the lead to get Duke home in first place, forging a team tie with the host Hokies.
2022
Softball
Duke trailed Georgia 5-3 in an NCAA regional elimination game, but the Blue Devils stormed back with 12 unanswered runs to win 13-5 and advance to the first Super Regional in program history.
2022
Tennis
Senior Day was more than memorable for senior Kelly Chen when she got Duke’s clinching point in a 5-2 victory over archrival North Carolina, handing the No. 1 ranked Tar Heels their first defeat of the season. The Blue Devils then took the ACC Tournament for the first time since 2012 and ran their winning streak to 12 straight in reaching the final four for the ninth time under coach Jamie Ashworth.