The William & Mary field hockey team opened the 2017 season on Friday night, falling to No. 2-ranked Duke 5-0 in front of a packed crowd at Busch Field.  The Tribe moves to 0-1 on the year, while the Blue Devils opened at 1-0.

The game was a defensive clinic in the first half, as W&M withstood a Duke barrage for more than 30 minutes.  That included an impressive 1-2 shutdown of the Blue Devils' first penalty corner, when sophomore goalkeeper Morgan Connor (Bedford, N.Y.) stopped the initial shot and senior captain Erin Menges (Richmond, Va.) cleaned up the rebound, clearing the ball at the post for a defensive save.  Menges was again on the spot four minutes later off another corner, deflecting the ball wide of the net to preserve the 0-0 stalemate.  Connor made three more saves in the half before Duke's fifth corner of the night generated the first goal.

The second half saw the Blue Devils come out firing early and often, going ahead 3-0 in the first seven minutes before setting the final margin at 5-0 with a bit more than 10 minutes left.  The Tribe stepped up its pressure steadily throughout the half but were repeatedly frustrated on chances.  Senior Cammie Lloyd (Midlothian, Va.) got past the keeper once, but got tangled as she tried to chase the ball into goal and a Duke defender was able to step in and make the defensive field save.  Then with two minutes to go, W&M earned a penalty corner, and Lloyd's shot sailed just wide of the post.

W&M Starters: Connor (GK), Arrowood, Menges, McCann, Snead, van de Kamp, Hughes, Ellis, Goodwin, Lloyd, MacLeod

Duke Starters: Steele (GK), Furey, Kristen, Gill, Wolgemuth, Posternak, Paolino, Tynan, Mackintire, Bitting, Chillano
 
Inside the Numbers
- Duke outshot W&M, 24-6, and 16-2 in shots on goal.
 
- The Blue Devils had an 8-2 advantage in penalty corners, including 5-1 in the first half, but only scored on one of those eight.
 
- Morgan Connor made nine saves in goal for W&M.
 
- W&M played 18 of its 21 field players in the match.
 
Notes
Erin Menges now has three career games with multiple defensive saves ... She and All-American Anna Davis '06 (four times) are the only players with multiple such games in their career since the 2000 season ...  Menges moves up to a tie for 11th all-time at W&M with eight career defensive saves ... Jenny McCann (Annandale, Va.) made just her second career start ... Freshmen Melanie Strik (Den Haag, The Netherlands) and Caitlin Maclean (Devizes, Wiltshire, England) made their collegiate debuts ... Morgan Connor's nine saves are the third-most in her career, behind only the freshman-record 11 she made against Duke in her career debut, and the 10 she made against eventual NCAA Champion Delaware ... Cammie Lloyd led all players with four shots ... Was W&M's top shot taker for the 16th time in the last 20 matches ... Had at least four shots for the 15th time in the last 20 matches ... Attendance of 694 is the highest reported for any W&M field hockey match since at least the mid 1990s.

What's Ahead
William & Mary continues its season-opening homestand, hosting Fairfield on Sunday at 12 p.m. at Busch Field.