Duke Earns No. 4 Seed; Opens ACC Championship Play with Cal

DURHAM, N.C.—Duke opens postseason action as the No. 4 seed in the 2025 ACC Field Hockey Championship as announced by the conference Saturday afternoon. The eighth-ranked Blue Devils take on No. 5 seed California in the quarterfinals Nov. 4 at Trager Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky.

ACC Championship Details

ACC Championship action gets underway with the opening game Nov. 4 at 10 a.m.
All seven games of the ACC Championship will be televised live on ACC Network with Leah Secondo and Suzanne Bush calling the action.
Admission to the championship event is free. Directions to Trager Stadium can be found here.

Matchup Details

Duke finished its conference slate at 4-4 while Cal posted a 3-5 mark in league action. The Bears won the head-to-head tiebreak versus Syracuse following the Orange's setback at Louisville to close the season. The Blue Devils and Bears square off Nov. 4 at 12:30 p.m., on ACC Network.

Series History

Duke and Cal meet for the first time in ACC postseason action and for the 11th time overall.
The Blue Devils won the regular season matchup in Durham, 2-0. Alaina McVeigh tallied both goals for the Blue Devils.
Cal is making its second appearance in the ACC Championship, falling to No. 1 seed North Carolina, 5-0, last season.

Duke in the ACC Championship

The Blue Devils are 23-43 all-time in 42 appearances in the ACC Championship. The Blue Devils have never won an ACC title and have advanced to the final game five times.
Duke is 7-8 as the No. 4 seed and 1-1 with Louisville serving as the host. The Blue Devils have advanced to the semifinals 26 times, going 5-21 in those matchups.

About the Blue Devils

Duke is 11-6 overall with all six losses coming against current top 10 teams – No. 1 North Carolina (1-2, OT), No. 2 Northwestern (0-1), No. 4 Virginia (0-1, 2OT), No. 6 Wake Forest (1-3), No. 7 Liberty (3-4) and No. 9 Syracuse (0-1).
Senior Alaina McVeigh and sophomore Julia Boehringer lead the offensive charge with 28 and 19 points, respectively. McVeigh and Boehringer have 10 and seven goals, respectively. Both are dangerous options on penalty corners as well as in open play.
The Blue Devils have seven shutouts this season and allowed only nine goals in ACC play. Duke has given up multiple goals in a game just three times this season - Liberty (4), Wake Forest (3) and North Carolina (2).

About the Bears

Cal heads to postseason field hockey with a 9-7 overall record. The Bears average 2.53 goals per game while also allowing 2.40 goals per game. Liz Klompmaker paces the offense with 15 goals and 32 points overall while Lieve Schalk is the top facilitator with seven assists. Olivia Sharratt has 15 points, and Holly Pears and Zara Schmitz round out the team's double-digit scorers with 11 and 10, respectively. Delphine Ayitey-Hammond is the anchor in goal with a 2.39 goals against average and a .635 save percentage in 13 appearances.

Up Next