Four Blue Devils Score in 4-0 Blanking of VCU

Sunday, October 20

Durham, N.C.

2 p.m.

Duke University

(10-4)

VCU

(9-5)

VCU

Duke University

Duke field hockey celebrates a goal by Bronwyn Bird

Photo by: Nat LeDonne / Duke Athletics

Four Blue Devils Score in 4-0 Blanking of VCU

10/20/2024 5:21:00 PM | Field Hockey

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DURHAM, N.C. – The 11th-ranked Duke field hockey team scored four goals in a span of 21:10 to beat visiting VCU, 4-0, Sunday afternoon on Williams Field at Jack Katz Stadium. The shutout victory is the sixth straight for the Blue Devils.
Four different Blue Devils scored goals in the win while Frederique Wollaert and Kaiya Chepow joined forces to post the team's 10th shutout of the season. Charlie van Oirschot had what proved to be the game-winning goal and assisted on the second score of the game. Bronwyn Bird, Barb Civitella and Alaina McVeigh rounded out the Duke (10-4) goal scorers. VCU fell to 9-5 on the year.
How it Happened

The Blue Devils got off to a bit of a slow start in the first quarter as VCU had the majority of the possession. The Rams fired three shots and earned two penalty corners but were unable to solve Wollaert and the Duke defense. Wollaert made two of her three saves of the game in the opening 15 minutes.
Duke regrouped after the first break and just over three minutes into the stanza van Oirschot took matters into her own hands. The wily midfielder got the ball on her stick at midfield, beat a couple of defenders and raced her way into the penalty circle and fired a backhanded shot past VCU goalie Tatum Anderson for the 1-0 lead.
The momentum continued in the Blue Devils' favor as they earned three penalty corners over the next six minutes. The third was the charm as Bird's sweep from the top of the circle hit the back of the cage for the graduate student's first goal as a Blue Devil. Kira Curland provided the insert with van Oirschot making the stop.
Defensively, Duke held the Rams without a shot in the second quarter, marking a 14th second quarter without allowing a goal. The Blue Devils are outscoring their opponents 10-0 in the second period.
Duke put the game out of reach in the first 10 minutes of the third quarter. Civitella netted her second goal of the season in the 39th minute and 1:21 later McVeigh connected on a penalty stroke to make it 4-0. Civitella's tally was assisted by Josephine Palde as she found the graduate student forward on the left sideline. Civitella dribbled into the circle and fired a shot off a VCU defender's stick for the goal.
VCU managed just one shot in the second half, finishing the game with four shots overall. The Rams had four penalty corners. Duke totaled 10 shots for the afternoon and six penalty corners. Anderson had three saves for VCU.

Notes

Charlie van Oirschot has scored in four straight games and has 10 points in the past four outings for the Blue Devils. She has registered double-digit points every year as a Blue Devil.
Bronwyn Bird scored her first career goal as a Blue Devil and the 11th of her collegiate career. She also has helped lead the Duke defense in this six-game shutout streak as the left back.
Alaina McVeigh registered her 26th career goal, leaving her four shy of moving into the top 20 in Duke history. She has 56 career points to tie for 33rd in program history. She needs four more points to reach 60 and move to 30th in Blue Devil lore.
Duke extends its shutout streak to 389:43, dating back to the 1-0 loss to Virginia Sept. 27. The Blue Devils' six straight shutouts are tied with the 1986 team for the longest streak in program history.
The Blue Devils' 10 shutouts are the second most in school history behind the 11 in 1982. Duke's 0.34 goals against average is the lowest in the country and the lowest in Duke history. Duke has not allowed fewer than 10 goals in a season since letting in just five in 1974.
Wollaert, making three saves, dropped her goals against average to a nation's best 0.30. The 0.30 GAA would be a Duke single-season record and rank third in NCAA history. The Duke single-season record for goals against average is 0.70, set by Lori Stark in 1986.
Duke has allowed just one goal in live action in the past 520 minutes and only two in the past 680 minutes. Since letting in two goals at Northwestern, Duke sports a 0.17 goals against average - two goals in 700 minutes of action.

Up Next

Duke continues its three-game homestand Friday, Oct. 25 against No. 9 Boston College, and Nov. 1 versus No. 1 North Carolina. The first hits are at 5 and 6 p.m., respectively.

To stay up to date with Blue Devils field hockey, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeFH".

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