No. 3 Duke Falls to No. 2 North Carolina in ACC Title Game

Friday, November 3

Charlottesville, Va.

7 p.m.

Duke University

(16-4)

North Carolina

(14-3)

Duke University

North Carolina

Duke huddles before the ACC Championship

Photo by: Duke Athletics

No. 3 Duke Falls to No. 2 North Carolina in ACC Title Game

11/4/2023 12:18:00 AM | Field Hockey

Box Score Box Score

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Second-ranked North Carolina scored a pair of goals in the third quarter and held off Duke's six penalty corners to capture the 2023 ACC Field Hockey title with a 2-0 victory over No. 3 Duke.

The title is the 26th for North Carolina as it improves to 15-3 overall. Duke falls to 16-4 on the season and to 0-4 in ACC title games.
Piper Hampsch, Mary Harkins and Hannah Miller represented Duke on the ACC All-Tournament Team.

How it Happened

The Blue Devils had the better possession for much of the opening quarter but couldn't get anything going inside the North Carolina circle. Duke's pressure through the middle of the field kept the Tar Heels at bay for much of the period.
The best chance of the opening frame started on an incredible individual effort from Miller to get the ball to Logan Clouser inside the circle. Clouser touched it to sophomore Alaina McVeigh, but the North Carolina keeper came off her line to put it out of danger.
Duke earned a penalty corner moments later with McVeigh's swing skipping just wide of the left post. The Blue Devils had the lone shot and only penalty corner in the first quarter.
The Tar Heels turned the tables in the second quarter, spending much of the first eight minutes in Duke's defensive half. North Carolina earned its first penalty corner at the 7:10 mark of the stanza sending a redirect just wide of the left post.
Hampsch made her first save of the night on the right post as Duke's defense continued to weather the Tar Heels' wave of pressure.
Miller sent one final hit into the circle for the Blue Devils as the final seconds ticked down. The ball skipped past a UNC defender and over the stick of Clouser as the final buzzer sounded to send the squads into halftime scoreless.
The Tar Heels grabbed the 1-0 lead in the 33rd minute as Ryleigh Heck flipped the ball over the head of Hampsch for her 11th goal of the season. Duke's Paige Bitting had the block on the first shot, but Heck stayed with it and hit the underside of the crossbar and down into the cage.
Duke earned a trifecta of penalty corners minutes later but couldn't beat the North Carolina defensive penalty corner unit. The Blue Devils had two of the shots saved by Maddie Kahn and the third blocked.
The Tar Heels extended their lead to 2-0 three minutes later when Charly Bruder lifted her shot over Hampsch.
North Carolina continued to put pressure on the Blue Devils in the fourth quarter, outshooting Duke 5-2 in the period. Looking to cut the lead in half, Duke earned a penalty corner with less than a minute left. McVeigh got the shot off from the right side of the circle, but once again it was Kahn making the last of her three saves on the night.
Hampsch finished with three saves for Duke. The Tar Heels outshot the Blue Devils 12-7. Both squads had six penalty corners apiece.

Notes

Duke has advanced to four ACC title games and lost to North Carolina in three of those.
Piper Hampsch made three saves to move her total to 277 for her career.
This marked the first time this season Duke has been shut out.

Up Next

Duke will see where it lands on the NCAA Tournament bracket Sunday, Nov. 5 at 10 p.m. The show will be streamed on NCAA.com.

Quotes
Pam Bustin on what shifted in the second quarter and into the third quarter
"[North] Carolina came out with some great energy, and I think they came out as a unit moving at a lot of speed. They moved the ball with speed, and they also took the ball with speed, and I think it kind of caught us on our back foot a little bit until we got it underneath us. They were able to shift the ball laterally really fast and it kind of caught us off guard."

Bustin on if playing an extra game played a role
"I don't know, maybe. I don't think so. I think our kids feel strong. We're super fit. I think we could have been a bit more aggressive in how we attack the ball. I think we could have been more aggressive in how we closed down space, so that's something we're going to look at."

Bustin on the two goals
"That first goal was beautiful. That was great skill by Ryleigh Heck. [North] Carolina played one of the better games I've seen them play this season tonight. I think the two goals came from their ability to switch to the other side of the field really fast caught us off guard. You play against a moving defender your chances are pretty good that you're going to get something positive out of that. They did a good job with that."

Bustin on what was discussed between third and four quarters
"We told them we still had time. We just had to be on the front foot, be more aggressive, be brave and be bold. Get out there and get some things done. Some areas of the field I didn't feel like we did that consistently, so we had to make sure we did that in the fourth quarter."

Bustin on this season so far
"This is what this team has worked for. They worked for an opportunity to play for an ACC Championship. It's not easy at this level and you've got an opponent where the majority of kids won a national championship last year. There is so much for us to still learn. We're young and I think this is such a great experience for this whole process. We're not done yet. Whether it's this season or next season, we're going to keep getting better. We get better from games like this."

#GoDuke