The No. 6 Duke Blue Devils (11-4) used a 7-1 second quarter run to eliminate the No. 10 Virginia Cavaliers (8-5) from the ACC Tournament on Saturday night, 19-10, inside Koskinen Stadium. Top-seeded Duke advances to the ACC Tournament final on Sunday against No. 3 seed Maryland.
“We just couldn’t get the ball cleared in the second quarter,” Virginia head coach Dom Starsia said. “We were scrambling a little bit in the defensive end.”
The contest started out well in UVa’s favor. Colin Briggs scored 1:23 into the contest on a fast break giving UVa the quick 1-0 advantage. After Duke’s Josh Offit scored unassisted at 11:30 in the first quarter, Rob Emery pushed UVa up a goal again, 2-1, with a score at 7:06.
David Lawson tied the game, 2-2, with an unassisted score with 5:06 remaining in the first quarter. UVa then jumped on top, 4-2, after two quick goals. Chris Bocklet increased his nation-best goal-scoring streak to 31 games with the score on a Nick O’Reilly pass at 3:04. Matt White capped the run with an extra-man goal on an Emery pass with 55 seconds remaining in the period, staking UVa to the 4-2 lead.
Starting with Justin Turri’s score with three seconds left in the first quarter, Duke scored six straight goals to take a commanding 8-4 lead. Six different Blue Devils scored during the run.
“I give credit to Duke – I thought they played really well,” said Starsia. “We never had the ball in the second quarter. We came out and played some man [defense] today. I don’t think it was our settled defense as much as it was us turning the ball over in transition.”
Briggs broke up the streak with his second goal at the 7:29 mark, cutting UVa’s deficit to three goals, 8-5. The Cavaliers did not get any closer the rest of the evening. Duke reeled off another 6-0 run that put the Blue Devils up 14-5 with 7:04 remaining in the third quarter.
Bocklet and Rhamel Bratton ended the Duke run with back-to-back goals, cutting the UVa deficit down to seven goals, 14-7, with 5:46 left in the third period. Duke then finished the game on a 5-3 run, securing the nine-goal win.
UVa had 18 turnovers, the Cavaliers second-worst effort of the season (VMI – 23). UVa managed just one shot in the second quarter and Duke goalie Dan Wigrizer recorded just one save in the first half. Duke outshot UVa (41-33) and picked up more ground balls (38-27). UVa won the faceoff battle (17-14).
White led UVa with three goals, while Briggs had three assists to go with his two goals. Shamel Bratton’s third quarter goal gave the senior his 129th career point, passing former teammate Brian Carroll for the most by a UVa midfielder.
Wolf and Lawson, who each tallied four goals, led Duke.
Virginia returns to action on April 30 when Penn comes to town, concluding the Cavaliers regular season slate. Faceoff is set for 3 p.m. and the seniors will be honored prior to the contest.
Tickets for Virginia home lacrosse games can be purchased online at VirginiaSports.com, by phone at (800) 542-8821 or in person at the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office in Bryant Hall at Scott Stadium Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Virginia lacrosse season tickets for 2011 are $30 (adult general admission) and $20 (youth, senior, faculty/staff general admission). Single-game tickets to lacrosse games are $7 (adult general admission), and $5 (youth, senior, faculty/staff general admission).
All reserved seats are sold out for the 2011 season.
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Chris Graham
