No. 2 Northwestern Outlasts No. 3 Duke in NCAA Semifinal

Friday, November 17

Chapel Hill, N.C.

3 p.m.

Duke University

(18-5)

Northwestern

(21-1)

Duke University

Northwestern

Photo by: Duke Athletics

No. 2 Northwestern Outlasts No. 3 Duke in NCAA Semifinal

11/17/2023 6:48:00 PM | Field Hockey

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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Second-seeded Northwestern scored a goal in the 49th minute and held off a Blue Devil charge in the final minutes to earn a 2-1 victory over No. 3 seed Duke in the NCAA Field Hockey Semifinals at Karen Shelton Stadium Friday afternoon.

Graduate student Hannah Miller capped an incredible career with the lone goal for the Blue Devils, while Piper Hampsch was outstanding in cage with seven saves.

Duke closes the incredible 2023 season with an 18-5 overall record, while Northwestern (21-1) advances to the championship game against top seed North Carolina.

How it Happened

Northwestern started the game on the front foot, getting inside Duke's defensive circle a few times in the opening minutes. Wildcat Peyton Halsey had a good look at the cage, lifting her shot just wide of the frame as the Blue Devils tried to settle into the action.
Duke started to put together some dangerous attacks midway through the first quarter with Hannah Miller getting into the circle a couple of times and just missing on centering passes. The Blue Devils continued to control a lot of the possession over the next few minutes before Northwestern regained a bit of the momentum in the final two minutes.
Piper Hampsch came up with a pair of massive saves on back-to-back penalty corners for the Wildcats. The first she knocked down a sweep from Isle Tromp. Moments later the veteran goaltender laid out to block Lauren Wadas' effort from the top of the circle, sending the teams into the first break in a scoreless tie.
Northwestern got on the board first two minutes into the second quarter, putting away a penalty corner on a sweep from Tromp. The rookie snuck it inside the left post past an outstretched Hampsch.
The Wildcats continued to put pressure on the Blue Devils and Hampsch came up with another key reaction stop on a penalty corner four minutes later. Northwestern had three more penalty corners in the last 7:53, but Duke's defensive unit blocked each of Wadas' shots and cleared them from danger to head into halftime trailing, 1-0.
The Blue Devils came out attacking to start the third quarter as graduate student Hannah Miller evened the score on a textbook redirect 2:43 into the third quarter. Sophomore Megan Maransky provided the assist, sending in a hit into the circle on a restart. Miller saw the opening and put her stick down and redirected the ball high into the cage to make it 1-1.
The Wildcats nearly took a 2-1 lead just over two minutes later, but Hampsch came off her line to knock Halsey's shot wide of the cage. The Blue Devil defense withstood Northwestern's continued pressure to head into the final period even at one apiece.
The Blue Devils jumped on the Wildcats again at the start of the frame as Miller almost put Duke up with a shot from the penalty spot. However, it hit the foot of Duke's Charlie van Oirschot before it could get through to the cage.
Northwestern nabbed the 2-1 lead a minute later with a counter-attack goal from Regan Cornelius. Olivia Bent-Cole provided the assist.
Miller, continuing to wreak havoc inside the circle, almost tied the game again, forcing Annabel Skubisz to knock down the Duke forward's shot for her first save of the afternoon.
The Blue Devils pulled goalie Piper Hampsch with just over five minutes to play, and Kira Curland came up with the defensive stop on a Northwestern penalty corner with 4:40 to play.
Duke, with a two-player advantage due to a yellow card against the Wildcats, pressed forward in search of the equalizer, but ultimately couldn't get past the stalwart Northwestern defense.
Northwestern had a commanding 20-4 edge in shots and a 10-1 advantage on penalty corners. The Blue Devils' defensive penalty corner unit was outstanding in allowing just one goal on 10 chances, including the final one without Hampsch in the cage.

Notes

Hannah Miller notched her 34th career goal and pushed her career points total to 97 points to rank 16th and 13th at Duke, respectively.
Piper Hampsch finished the day with seven saves to give her 285 for her career. Her
Duke's 18 wins are tied for the third most in program history. The Blue Devils have won 18 games in four seasons and once under head coach Pam Bustin.
This was Duke's seventh appearance in the NCAA semifinals (2003, 2004, 2005, 2016, 2013, 2015). The Blue Devils are 4-3 in semifinal games.
Duke moves to 1-1 against Northwestern in NCAA Tournament action.

Quotes
Pam Bustin Opening Statement
"First, congratulations to Northwestern for earning a spot in the national championship again and congratulations to the Tar Heels as well. I think it's going to be a great final. Unfortunately, we were looking forward to playing in it as well. I couldn't ask more as a coach, as a program from these student-athletes and the women who represented Duke this year. We came in with such great energy starting in August with all of the work they had put in in the last year-and-a-half. To come out and start the season the way we did and to sustain it is a testament to these two [Alaina McVeigh and Piper Hampsch] and their teammates every single day. Every single day we went to work and had fun doing it. I'm so pleased and proud they were able to represent and have this opportunity today. I think we learned a lot and we continue to learn as we move forward. Just disappointed obviously we didn't get the ball in the cage more than they did.

Hampsch on the defensive penalty corner unit
"I think we knew Northwestern had a great penalty corner unit and could score on a lot of them, but we have a great defensive penalty corner unit. People have continued to challenge us, and we expected a challenge from Northwestern. I think earning 10 penalty corners is less than desirable, but we stopped most of them. I'm so happy with that and the way we were able to adjust on the fly. I couldn't be more proud of my teammates stepping up for me when I'm no in the cage. Kira Curland saving that I think is a game changer and momentum shifter and it kept us in the game. I credit everyone who is back on that line, everyone running back from the 50. I think defensive penalty corners are a team effort and we weren't going to get knocked down just because Northwestern earned a couple more than we wanted them to. I think we stayed strong and that's the core of what it means to be on the defense."

McVeigh on playing in this game
"It's such a privilege to play in a final four game. Just coming off a season we had last year I couldn't be more proud of everyone in the way we changed things around this season and the work we put in. I know it means so much to me, Piper and everyone on the team that we even made it this far and we earned our spot in the final four. We wish we could go farther, but this was a pretty awesome experience."

McVeigh on generating offense against Northwestern
"Obviously it didn't go our way, but we never stopped diving for every ball in trying to get every shot off. I know Annabel [Skubisz] is such an amazing goalkeeper. We just kept trying to shoot everything that we could. It didn't go our way today, but we tried."

Bustin on the defensive penalty corners
"I think they caught us in transition most of the time. Also, quick free hits just outside of the circle are very hard to defend. Northwestern's a master of that and we knew that. Still, it's a combination of how the defense plays and how the umpires call them. It's got to work together and today it didn't work well for us. We've got to get better at that. We've got to come up with our own solutions to how we're going to combat that, so we don't get penalized for those quick free plays."

Bustin on what was said at halftime
"We just needed to be bigger. We just needed to be more of a presence on the field, both on the attack and defense. I think in the first quarter we were coming out well. We had some good things and then we started becoming smaller and that's not how we play. So, we had to make ourselves bigger again, had to make our urgency greater in the transition game and they did exactly that when we came out. That's been one of the things that is amazing by this group is the ability to change it on the fly and react to coaching points, from each other as well, not just the coaches. To be open to it and make adjustments to help them be better on the field. That was exciting to see."

Bustin on the graduate students
"Our graduate students, particularly Mary [Harkins] and Hannah [Miller], having played here for four years, I was saying to Hannah that I'm so proud of her. It was such a courageous decision to come back. You have a team that hasn't been in the NCAA [Tournament] for a million different reasons, but we weren't, bottom line. We believed that we would. I was thinking during the game that last season, yeah, we didn't get the results, but the resiliency of this team was born from the resiliency they had when we didn't get the results. They still showed up every day to get better. They still kept fighting. They were still in every game. That resiliency has been the foundation now of us winning games, going to score goals, getting better at attack and defensive penalty corners. Hannah and Mary had a big part in that. Their love for Duke. Their love for this game. They wanted to continue to play with these guys because they could see it. They knew that this could be achieved. I'm very grateful. Piper is in grad school. She came in as a grey shirt back in 2020 and that's a whole other story. Then Sarah [Bonthuis] came and joined us as a grad student. Their leadership has been phenomenal. Their maturity has been phenomenal. On and off the field so I'm very grateful for them."

Bustin on the momentum shift on Northwestern's second goal
"It's a part of this game. It's a mystery how that happens after goals are scored, one that has been there for decades. We just have to get back into the mentality that it's 0-0. Part of our strength this year has been our emotion. We emotionally fight – you probably just saw it in the last five minutes. Also, we get very excited and happy about things. We love scoring goals. They were hard to find last year so we get very excited about the goals. It's a lesson in learning to bring your emotions back to where you have to be in order to play a high-level game like we did today and every game on our schedule quite honestly."

#GoDuke