No. 10 Eagles Host No. 4 Duke for Senior Night

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The No. 10 Boston College field hockey team closes out its regular season on Friday, Nov. 1 at 5 p.m. at the Newton Field Hockey Complex for senior night.

The Matchup
Boston College welcomes Duke to Newton for a matchup that can shake the rankings before the ACC Championships. Duke enters at 12-5, but only 1-4 in the ACC with losses to Virginia, Louisville, UNC and Syracuse. Duke enters the matchup with a 14-7 all-time record against the Eagles and have won the last seven games.

Last Weekend
BC faced off against the top team in the nation, North Carolina, and gave the Tar Heels a fight. BC scored the game's opening goal 42 minutes into the match off the stick of Charlotte Von Huelsen. UNC would answer with two quick goals in the 48th and 51st minutes, though. Then, with less than five minutes to go, Elizabeth Warner buried a goal off a penalty corner from a centering pass to tie the game at two, before UNC's Yentl Leemans scored with less than three minutes to go to give the Tar Heels the win.

Sarah Dwyer spent nearly 59 minutes in goal before being pulled for the extra field player, making four saves and giving up three goals.

Scouting Duke
Duke enters at 12-5, but is only 1-4 in the ACC and locked into the six seed for the tournament. Even with a 1-4 ACC record, they still sit tight as the No. 4 team in the country in the NFHCA Coaches' Poll.

Offensively, their two main scoring threats are Leah Crouse and Hannah Miller, who have 10-4-24 and 11-0-22 stat lines, respectively. The Blue Devils have five players with 10 or more points.

In goal, Sammi Steele has started every game for Duke, amassing a 12-5 record with seven shutouts. She's given up 17 goals for a .95 GAA and boasts a .734 save percentage.

Record Breaking
Margo Carlin is moving up the BC record books her freshman year. She's totaled a stat line of 17-4-38 in 16 games so far this season. Her 17 goals gives her the most-ever by a freshman in BC program history and the 8th-most in BCFH history. Her 38 points is also a freshman record and tied for the 8th-most in program history.

The Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania native is among some of the best scorers in the nation, currently fourth in the country with 17 goals and 1.06 goals per game, as well as fifth with 38 points eighth with 2.38 points per game.

Carlin is also tied with five other players with four goals in a single game, when she did so against BU on Oct. 13 in a 5-0 BC win.

Dwyer on Fire
Sarah Dwyer has played among the best goalies in the nation since taking over as the starter against Virginia. She's posted a five shutouts in seven appearances, including three wins over ranked teams in a 6-1 stretch since Oct. 4.

Dwyer has a 0.94 GAA and a .800 save percentage this season, which ranks third and fourth in the country, respectively. Dwyer also is tied for seventh in BC program history with five shutouts this season, which gives her 11 for her career and the sixth-most in BC history.

If the season were to end today, Dwyer's 0.94 GAA would set a new BC record for lowest in a single season with a minimum of 500 minutes played.

Battle Tested
BC's schedule is one of the toughest in the nation based off opponent win percentage. The Eagles have faced the second-hardest schedule in the country so far this season with an opponent win percentage of .675.

Rankings
BC moves up to No. 10 in the rankings - its highest ranking throughout the 2019 season.

Although they rank No. 10 in the coaches' poll, the Eagles are seventh in the NCAA RPI Rankings. Six of the top-eight teams in the RPI are ACC schools.

BC's RPI rank of seven is its highest since Oct. 15, 2017 when they ranked fifth and have only been ranked higher than seven eight times since 2001.

October Heat
BC played some of its best field hockey in the month of October, amassing a 6-1 record with four shutouts and three wins over ranked opponents. The Eagles outscored their opponents 18-3 during the month, helping improve their RPI from 13 to seven and NFHCA ranking from 17 to 10.

Making Moves
The Eagles are guaranteed to enter postseason play with a tie for their best record under head coach Kelly Doton. With three wins in the ACC and one game left to go, BC has the opportunity to either tie its best ACC record since 2016 or have the most wins since joining the ACC in 2005.

ACC Tournament Scenarios
BC currently sits fourth in the ACC with a 3-2 record, but can end up as high as the second seed and as low as the fourth seed depending on its play on Friday.

BC holds the tiebreaker over Syracuse with a 2-1 win over the Orange on Oct. 18. Syracuse holds the tiebreaker due to a 2-1 OT win over Duke, locking them in as the five seed and Duke as the six seed. Wake Forest is the seventh seed.

With a BC win and Louisville loss, the Eagles would end up as the No. 2 seed and face off against Wake Forest in the first round at 2:30 p.m.

But, if both Louisville and BC win, the Cardinals would be the second seed and BC the third due to head-to-head. This would lock BC in to have a rematch of its season finale, playing Duke at 5 p.m. on Nov. 7.

If both BC and Virginia lose, BC finishes as the three seed and Virginia the fourth seed.

If both Virginia and Louisville win and BC loses, the Eagles would sit tight at the fourth seed and face Syracuse in the noon game on Thursday, Nov. 7 in the 4 vs. 5 game.

If BC, Virginia and Louisville all win, all three teams will be 4-2 and the tiebreaker will be decided by goal differential in ACC games. BC currently leads at +4 with Louisville in second at +2 and UVA at 0.

Senior Day
Against Duke, BC will be honoring its four seniors, who are playing their last regular season games at the Newton Field Hockey Complex. The group has amassed 41 wins so far in their careers and look to lead BC deep into the ACC tournament this season.

All four seniors have started 54 of a possible 64 starts so far this season, while Brigid Wood and Emily Buttinger have started every game this season. Over the past two seasons, Wood has started every game for the Eagles.

No. 10 Eagles Host No. 4 Duke for Senior Night

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Emily Buttinger

Margo Carlin

Sarah Dwyer

Charlotte Von Huelsen

Elizabeth Warner

Brigid Wood