WASHINGTON –– The Eagles of the American University field hockey team pushed it to the final moments but were unable to complete a comeback against No. 5 Duke on Sunday, ultimately falling 2-1 to the visiting Blue Devils.

Quick Notables

• First year Ninthe Botman was the lone goal scorer for AU, notching her second goal in as many games.
• The teams were equal, seven-all in shots overall, but Duke managed four on target to AU's two, and American took six penalty corners while holding the Blue Devils to four.

How It Happened
Neither team earned either a shot or a penalty corner in the first fame, defensively locking in from push back.
 
Both of the Blue Devil's goals would come in the second quarter. Early in the second, Duke earned the first penalty corner of the game, but the resulting shot was saved by Pauline Gineste. Seconds later though, on the Blue Devils second penalty corner, they converted to take the lead, up 1-nil at the 17:55 mark.
 
In the 25th minute, the visitors were able to double their lead on a shot from Alaina McVeigh. Their 2-nil lead would last through halftime.
 
In the 38th minute, Botman would cut the deficit in half with an unassisted goal for American, Eagles now trailing 2-1.
 
American would take five more shots in the contest and earn three more penalty corners, pressing in the final quarter and a half to find the equalizer, but would come out unsuccessful in making a full comeback.

From Head Coach Jennings
"Credit to Duke, they're a great team and really took it to us in the second quarter and we fell away from a lot of our principles. We are a little bit young, and we are a little bit inexperienced in some positions, so we're learning on the fly, and I think the pleasing thing for us is that after halftime we adjusted, with changes to endeavor and spirit and brought ourselves dramatically back into the game. We started to play like our identity and Duke is an awesome team and they gave us a really good test today.
 
"I think we still have a lot of work to do on the penalty corners, but I'm very pleased overall with the second half."

Coming Up
On Sunday, September 7, the Eagles will face off with the Dukes of JMU, at 1 p.m.
 
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American 1,  No. 5 Duke 2
Scoring: Duke – Julia Boehringer (Madison Beach , Maggie Kondrath), 17:55; Duke – Alaina McVeigh, 24:25; AU – Ninthe Botman, 37:14
Shots: AU 7 (0/1/5/1), Duke 7 (0/3/1/3)
Penalty Corners: AU 6 (0/1/3/2), Duke 4 (0/2/0/2)
Goalkeeper Saves: AU 2 (Pauline Gineste, 60:00, 2 saves, 2 goals allowed); Duke 1 (Kaiya Chepow, 60:00, 1 save, 1 goals allowed)
Records: AU 1-1 (0-0 PL), Duke 1-1 (0-0 ACC)