DATE: Monday, November 3, 1997              TAG: 9711030101

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Bob Molinaro 

                                            LENGTH:   62 lines

FIELD HOCKEY, FANS FINDING HAMPTON ROADS QUITE COMFY

When 600 or so people forsake NFL football or a picnic on a sunlit autumn afternoon for a college field hockey game, you have yourself an upset, never mind what events take place on the artificial turf at Foreman Field.

As it turned out, third-ranked North Carolina's one-goal victory over top-ranked Old Dominion qualifies as a mild surprise.

But it was the ``crowd'' this game attracted that opened some eyes.

``I didn't even notice them at first,'' Kim Miller, ODU's precocious sophomore, said. ``Then, late in the second half, there were some bad calls and I heard these loud noises. I looked up and thought, `Where'd all these people come from?' ''

If Miller and her ODU teammates were not accustomed to relative privacy, they could have turned that question around and asked, ``Where have all the people been?''

Sunday's turnout was the healthiest of the year. Traditionally, North Carolina is a big draw. Last season, the arrival of the Tar Heels, combined with an ODU promotion, swelled attendance at Foreman Field to 2,765, a regular-season NCAA record for field hockey.

Of course, if half the local schoolgirls who play field hockey had attended Sunday's game, Hampton Boulevard would have suffered from a case of gridlock. But that just doesn't happen. Until it does, a turnout of around 600 does not go unnoticed, even if admission is free.

For Sunday's final regular-season game, the ODU cheerleaders and mascot actually made the scene. Field hockey regulars in the crowd couldn't recall that happening this year. But then at halftime, the cheerleaders and faux Lion moved across campus to support the women's soccer team against Florida.

Were the field hockey players disappointed? Probably not, assuming they even noticed.

``We're not a national sport,'' North Carolina coach Karen Shelton was saying after the Tar Heels avenged their September loss to ODU. ``Field hockey is not expanding like women's soccer.''

But there are, she said, ``great pockets'' of interest. In Southern California. In Ann Arbor, Michigan. In Tulsa and St. Louis.

``Virginia Beach,'' Shelton noted, ``has become a real hotbed.''

One look at ODU's roster and you'd know that. There are seven Beach kids on the Lady Monarchs, four in the starting lineup.

North Carolina dips into the Beach talent pool, too, though one of the stars of the game for the Tar Heels was a senior centerback from San Diego.

Joy Driscoll came East because North Carolina, like ODU, is a cradle of college field hockey. She's been a member of two national championship teams.

To win a third, she and her teammates may have to knock off ODU again at the Final Four.

``Is ODU the best team?'' Driscoll said. ``They're an excellent team. The best team comes in a few more weeks at the Final Four.''

The Lady Monarchs can be there. It's up to them, Miller believes.

``I think our team's biggest weakness,'' she said, ``is mental toughness.''

It's a surprising thing to hear about an 18-2, No. 1-ranked (for now) club, especially one coached by the indomitable Beth Anders, architect of seven national titles at ODU.

``This would have been a better game,'' insisted Miller, ``if both teams had competed equally.''

A better game, perhaps. But a bigger, brighter stage for college field hockey would have been hard to find.

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