CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The men's lacrosse team threw away a great opportunity Saturday afternoon.
Literally.
Up by two in the fourth quarter, the third-ranked Blue Devils (8-2, 1-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) could not hold onto the ball, as absent-minded turnovers enabled No. 7 Virginia (5-3, 2-1) to score three unanswered goals to claim a 12-11 win and second place in the ACC.
With three minutes to go and the score 12-11, Cavalier Peter Ragosa stole the ball from junior Scott Diggs. UVa held the ball for two minutes until finally knocked out of bounds with 54 seconds left. Diggs took a potential game-tying shot with 27 seconds left, but Chris Sanderson made the save, his fifth of the quarter, and the game was finished.
The Diggs turnover summed up the fourth quarter for the Blue Devil offense-sloppy. Ill-advised passes flew out of bounds, toward unprepared teammates or into the sticks of waiting Cavaliers. Although Duke had some scoring opportunities-one Nick Hartofilis shot hit the top pipe-it never seemed in synch offensively in the final stanza.
"Virginia didn't beat us today," coach Mike Pressler said. "They won the game, but we beat ourselves."
The game winner came with 9:33 left in the game. Hartofilis, in his first game back from injury, took a shot that was stopped by Sanderson. Virginia went into a fast break and attackman Tucker Radebaugh quickly scored his second transition goal of the quarter.
For Duke, the game winner was one of many defensive breakdowns that led to easy transition goals.
"The story of the game was our miscues on defense," Pressler said. "We made big-time defensive mistakes that we haven't made all year. Those were just breakdowns that you can't make against a team like Virginia."
Radebaugh-the ACC leader in points per game-was the star of the contest, racking up a game-high four goals. Some of his scores, however, could have been prevented.
"Tucker had a few where he backed behind his guy because his man was looking at the loose ball, worried about who's going to pick it up," said Virginia attackman Drew McKnight, who passed for five assists. "When we picked those balls up, Tucker was wide open behind his man."
While the defense only let up three goals in the second half, its poor performance in the first dug Duke into a deep hole. Aside from the transition breakdowns, the Blue Devils successfully cleared the ball a dismal 66 percent of the time.
Duke won more ground balls and faceoffs, and John Fay and T.J. Durnan netted three goals each, but it was not enough to lift Duke to a win.
"[We gave up] too many scramble goals, gimme goals that never should have happened," Pressler said. "Our man-down defense wasn't strong today. I was disappointed the way we handled that. Too many breakdowns on defense-that's the bottom line. Eleven goals should have been enough for us to win."
The game stayed even for much of the first half, but Virginia went on a 4-0 run in the final six minutes of the second quarter to give the Cavaliers a 9-6 halftime advantage. The Blue Devils would bounce back with a dominating third quarter in which they outscored UVa, 5-0, to take a 11-9 lead, but the fourth quarter was something entirely different.
"We came out in the third quarter and we were flat," Radebaugh said. "We weren't really hustling a lot, they got the loose balls, and that's when they got hot. In the fourth, we picked it up and started getting the ball a lot and got the goals we needed."
The game was back and forth throughout, and every loose ball was hotly contested by several players.
"This is one of the best games I've ever been involved in," Radebaugh said. "It was back and forth, great for the crowd and great for the team."
Radebaugh will get to relive the memories soon enough. These same teams will meet again at Klockner Stadium this Friday at 8:30 p.m. for the first round of the ACC Tournament.
With Saturday's loss, if Duke is to have any chance at a top-four seeding and a first round bye in the NCAAs, it will likely have to win the ACC title by beating both Virginia and No. 1 Maryland.
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