Duke suffered its first loss of the season Saturday, falling to No. 4 Virginia, 11-10, at home. The No. 2 Blue Devils (9-1, 3-1 in the ACC) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on goals from Katie Chrest and Michelle Menser, but a 6-1 Cavalier run in the second half proved to be too much for Duke.
"I think that we won the draw really cleanly in the first half, or more cleanly than we did in the second half," Chrest said. "I hate to say it, but when we were tired in the second half, we really didn't take care of the ball."
The Blue Devils bested Virginia (11-2, 3-1) in every statistical category except goals and saves, recording 13 turnovers to the Cavaliers 18 and 20 ground balls to their opponents 14.
"If you look at the stats, they paint a very interesting picture," head coach Kerstin Kimel said. "I thought we had some good opportunities, but I thought we didn't shoot well. I mean, we took 30 shots and scored 10 goals. Not good."
With less than four minutes to play and Duke trailing 11-9, Caroline Cryer quick-sticked a pass from Megan Del Monte into the left side of the goal to cut the Cavalier lead to one. But it was the last time Duke would score.
Chrest had two chances to tie the game in the final minutes, twice bouncing shots off Miles that skirted harmlessly away.
"I take that shot all the time," Chrest said. "It just wasn't very good shot selection. I should have shot the ball low, and it would have had a better chance of going in."
The Blue Devils had sported a balanced offense in the first half as a different attacker scored each of Duke's six goals. The half ended with Duke ahead, 6-4, but Virginia came back fighting in the second period.
After a shot by Chrest sailed past the left shoulder of Virginia goalie Ginger Miles and into the cage, the Blue Devils held a three-goal advantage, their largest lead of the game.
The Cavaliers answered just over a minute later, scoring two goals within 15 seconds of each other. The first came on a ground ball that was scooped up in front of Duke goalie Megan Huether and put in the back of the net, and the second came on a shot by Cavalier attacker Blair Weymouth, who won the draw and took it down the field to score unassisted.
It seemed as if the Blue Devils were back in control when Kristen Waagbo connected with Chrest to push Duke's lead back to two, but Virginia responded with four straight scores to recapture a 10-8 lead.
"I thought that Virginia's offense had some nice attackers," Kimel said. "But we just didn't take care of the ball, bottom line."
Duke rallied with an unassisted goal from Carolyn Davis with 13:18 to go. But after several turnovers in the midfield, the clock ticked down to 6:40, and Virginia scored once more on a quick-stick bounce shot to lead by two again.
"I feel like we just completely got away from our game plan, were not composed and that was really disappointing," Kimel said. "And I think that Virginia played with a lot more heart than we did."
Duke faces undefeated No. 1 Northwestern Friday at Koskinen Stadium.
"I hope [the loss] motivates us," Kimel said. "I said to the girls, 'At some point our mistakes are going to catch up with us,' and they did."
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