No. 3 Duke Defeats No. 18 Villanova :: The Blue Devils outscored the Wildcats 4-0 in the second half.

Oct. 11, 2005

DURHAM, N.C. - The No. 18 Villanova field hockey team (11-4, 2-1 Big East) fell to the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils (10-3, 2-2 ACC), 6-1, Tuesday evening at Williams Field in Durham, N.C. The match started close, but `Nova was unable to contain United States World Cup competitors Amy Stopford, Katie Grant, and Cara-Lynn Lopresti.

Duke started the scoring six minutes into the game in the center of the circle. Stopford shot the ball on a fake from Nicole Dudek to make the score 1-0. Three minutes later the Blue Devils struck again off of the Wildcats' current nemesis, a penalty corner. Grant found her own shot off of Erin Scott's (West Chester, Pa./West Chester East) pads to put Duke up by two.

`Nova got on the board at 14:39 executing a perfect penalty corner play. Lauren Campanelli (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy) had the ball on the line and passed to stopper Sara Schmidt (Mullica Hill, N.J./Wilmington Friends). Megan Foster (Berlin, N.J./Bishop Eustace) played the shooter and weaved between two defenders before firing past keeper, Caitlin Williams.

Duke added one more before half with four minutes left. Lopresti shot the ball and Stopford redirected it into the goal to make the score 3-1 going into the break.

Duke kept rolling in the second half scoring four goals, three by Grant, to give her four on the afternoon. On the first, Grant snuck the ball past Scott during a scramble in front of the goal. Three minutes later she struck again looping the ball in over the defenses' heads. To complete the second half hat trick, Grant took a pass from Hilary Linton on the left side of the field and shot past substituted keeper, Alex Whalen (Basking Ridge, N.J./Basking), making the score 6-1.

With 23 seconds left, Stopford and Lopresti made a final connection in the circle to make the final 7-1 in favor of the Blue Devils. Williams got the win with one save against the Wildcat's two shots. Scott took the loss with fourteen saves and Whalen accumulated two against forty shots. In penalty corners, Duke held a huge advantage 16-1.

Villanova takes on No. 13 Louisville this Saturday at 1 p.m. to begin a three game homestand