It’s UConn vs Duke For The Title

UConn has played Duke in basketball, men’s and women’s, and have taken the football field together but in most recent version of Huskies vs Blue Devils, the matchup is for all the marbles – in field hockey. The Huskies, in its first National Championship game since 1985, will play the Duke Blue Devils on Sunday for the title. Should the Huskies win, it would be the program’s third National Championship in its first trip to the title game in 28 years.

It’s not like UConn has fallen off the field hockey map since 1985, though. A perennially ranked team, the Huskies have 24 Big East titles and have been in 10 Final Fours, the most recent in 2011. UConn is also a destination for highly ranked players who want a chance to win a championship. But events – injuries and graduation most prominent among them – have kept the Huskies out of the Championship game.

The #4 ranked Huskies (20-4) defeated #3 North Carolina 2-1 in an overtime thriller on Friday, with two time All American goalie Sarah Mansfield turning away all shot attempts in the final period’s shootout. It was the first time UConn had beaten the Tar Heels since 1982. Meanwhile, #5 Duke (17-6) upset top ranked Maryland 3-2 in an All-ACC matchup. The party crasher from the American, UConn, has a chance to put the brakes on the ACC’s dominance in field hockey but first it needs to defeat Duke, a school that UConn fans love to hate.

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