GREENSBORO, N.C. -- It's probably a measure of how little they were regarded that the three Duke women's basketball players and their coach were actually startled last night when someone suggested at a post-game interview that they had made history.

Indeed, in knocking off the three-time defending champion Tennessee Lady Vols, 69-63, before 12,235 stunned fans, the 10th-ranked Blue Devils pulled off one of the greatest upsets in the history of the relatively nascent sport of women's basketball.

As a result, it will be Duke and not second-ranked Tennessee that will head to San Jose, Calif., this weekend with the East Regional slot in the Final Four.

"I told our team no one outside our locker room thought we could win this basketball game," said Duke coach Gail Goestenkors. "We were playing for respect. I don't think one of our players thought it was an upset. That's probably the mentality they had to have."

The Blue Devils (28-6), who lost by 14 to the Lady Vols in December, stared down the Tennessee mystique with a flawless game plan and clutch shooting to capture the school's first Final Four berth.

Hardly anyone outside Durham gave Duke a chance to stay with, much less beat, the more talented Lady Vols (31-3), but the No. 3 seeds overcame second-half foul trouble and a fierce Tennessee comeback to become the first school since Georgia in 1983 to send both its men's and women's teams to the national semifinals.

"It's an easy thing to say what you need to do against Tennessee, but it's a tough thing to actually do it because they are so good and they are so well-coached and they've got so many weapons," Goestenkors said.

The heart of the Duke plan was to keep reigning National Player of the Year Chamique Holdsclaw off her game, and it worked brilliantly. In her worst college game, Holdsclaw, a three-time All-American, shot just 2-for-18 for eight points, fouling out with 25.4 seconds remaining and sobbing into coach Pat Summitt's shoulder.

"I had great looks at the basket, but they just weren't falling," Holdsclaw said. "It was front end, front end. They weren't bad shots."

Meanwhile, the Blue Devils played with poise and resolve, as if their opponents were simply mortal and not what had been considered the greatest team in women's history.

Duke forward Georgia Schweitzer, who held Holdsclaw to 12 points in the previous meeting, stuck to her again last night, and played a great offensive game as well, scoring a game-high 22 points, hitting three of four three-pointers to boot, one of them giving the Blue Devils an early lead.

"When you hit your first shot, you get a lot of confidence and you build from there," said Schweitzer, a 6-foot junior.

Trailing by 11 at the half, Tennessee responded with a 10-3 run, as Holdsclaw scored on a layup -- her first field goal of the evening -- and was fouled. Then Semeka Randall, making her first start since severely spraining her ankle 10 days before in the opening round of the tournament, hit a short baseline jumper, then converted on a three-point play.

Defensively, the Lady Vols picked up their intensity, fighting through screens and contesting the open jumpers that the Blue Devils had hit so easily in the first half, when they shot 60 percent.

The Blue Devils also got themselves into foul trouble, committing the first six team fouls of the second half, and putting the Lady Vols into the bonus with 11: 36 to go. But Tennessee could not capitalize, making eight of 18 free throws.

In perhaps the most telling sequence, Tennessee sophomore forward Tamika Catchings, a two-time All-American, missed two free throws with 6: 52 to go that would have given the Lady Vols a lead and perhaps have broken Duke's spirit.

Said Goestenkors: "I never wanted them to get a lead, because I felt if they did, the crowd would go crazy. I think we dodged a bullet there."

"I never felt like we were getting any breaks during that time," said Summitt, whose Lady Vols had won 22 NCAA tournament games in a row. "We had opportunities, but we never could get over the hump. That took something out of us. I just really hate that a team this exciting and with the best player in the women's game won't be in the Final Four, but these two players [Holdsclaw and fellow senior Kellie Jolly] will have greater losses than this in life."

But while the Blue Devils wavered, they never faltered. With men's players Trajan Langdon, Chris Carrawell and Shane Battier watching, senior guard Nicole Erickson hit two jumpers within a one-minute span to give Duke a 55-50 lead and the Lady Vols could never get closer.

"We said from Day One that our goal was not to beat Tennessee or to reach a Final Four," Goestenkors said. "We wanted to win a national championship. Tennessee was in our way."

Women's NCAA tournament

Yesterday's results

East Regional final

Duke 69, Tennessee 63

Mideast Regional final

Georgia 89, Iowa State 71

Midwest Regional final

Purdue 75, Rutgers 62

West Regional final

Louisiana Tech 88, UCLA 62

Final Four

At San Jose, Calif.

Friday's semifinals

Georgia (27-6) vs.

Duke (28-6), 7 or 9: 30 p.m.

Louisiana Tech (30-2) vs.

Purdue (32-1), 7 or 9: 30 p.m.

Sunday's title game

Semifinal winners, 9 p.m.

Pub Date: 3/23/99