Slide continues for women's lax as UVa pounds Duke, 13-3

Friday afternoon at Duke Lacrosse Stadium, the women's lacrosse team had a lot of things on its agenda.

No. 7 Duke (7-4, 1-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) looked to avert a three-game skid and build some momentum for the upcoming postseason tournaments. Unfortunately, No. 3 Virginia (10-2, 1-2) stood in the way.

UVa, however, proved to be a much bigger road block than the Blue Devils had expected and dismantled Duke 13-3, extending its winning streak to five games.

Despite the heavy showers and a water-logged field, Virginia's offense put on a brilliant scoring display. Mia Mooney and Mills Hook led Virginia with three points apiece as each notched two goals and one assist. Three others Cavaliers scored two goals, and, in total, nine different Cavaliers found the back of the net.

The Cavaliers struck first on Kara Ariza's unassisted goal just three minutes into the contest. Virginia never looked back and built a 6-0 lead before Duke finally countered with two goals in the closing minutes of the half.

Freshman Kate Soulier recorded Duke's first goal of the afternoon with 1:46 left in the period. Just 40 seconds later, senior Kristin Lonergan added a goal to trim the halftime deficit to four.

"The goals gave us a lot of confidence," Megan McLaughlin said. "We scored two goals in nearly 50 seconds, so we knew we could score against them. There was still a lot of time left and we felt like we could win."

The momentum didn't last very long as the Cavaliers answered back with six unanswered goals to open the half, putting the game, and thoughts of a comeback, out of reach.

Hook converted a goal off the assist from Meredith Elwell seven minutes into the second stanza. Four minutes later, Kelly Allenbach converted a free position, giving the Cavaliers an 8-2 lead.

Virginia showed just how quickly they could score when they tallied three more goals in just two minutes. Jess Hull converted a free position and Lacey Aumiller added a score a minute later on a crease challenge. After Duke was called offsides, Hook added another goal that put the 'Hoos up 11-2.

Virginia's patience on offense allowed it to score the three goals in such a brief period of time. After controlling the ball for nearly twelve minutes, they began to wear down the Duke defense and get some easier shots on the Blue Devils. Virginia's defense also contributed to its success. The Cavaliers marked Tricia Martin-the ACC's leading scorer-and kept her from scoring a single goal on the afternoon. The Wahoos defense forced 17 turnovers and missed only five clearing attempts during the entire game.

Cavs' goalie Heather Castle turned away all of Duke's free-position attempts in the first half as the Blue Devils struggled to produce on offense. Duke shots did not pose much of a challenge, however, as most were shot right at her feet.

"It was a combination of their defense and poor shot selection," said Martin, referring to Duke's anemic offense. "We just weren't getting good looks at goal, and we also took some bad shots."

The Duke loss could be attributed to many things, but probably not to Mother Nature. The Blue Devils only had two more turnovers than the Cavaliers and few players seemed to be adversely affected by the conditions. More significant was that Virginia picked up 30 ground balls compared to the Blue Devils' 20. The Wahoos had an even more distinct advantage on the draw controls, with a 13-4 edge.

Duke will have another chance to snap their losing streak against the Vanderbilt Commodores Tuesday night at the Duke Lacrosse Stadium.

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