Six days after a dominating 13-9 win over then-No. 1 Virginia in Charlottesville, No. 4 Duke will now face the Cavaliers in College Park, Md., with even more at stake this time.
When the two last met, both teams were already locked into their tournament seedings. Virginia (11-1) had already clinched the top seed in the ACC Tournament while Duke (11-3) could not improve its status as the No. 4 seed. Despite the win, the Blue Devils are not overconfident—they know this game means more than their last contest.
“The guys know what’s at stake here,” junior defenseman Michael Manley said. “You look at that game [last week], it’s just another game. [But] we’re going in with the same mentality as last week. Nothing’s going to change—they’re the same team, we’re the same team—confidence-wise, we’re going to play the same.”
Even with a short turnaround time between the games, don’t expect No. 2 Virginia to come out discouraged Friday.
“They were very, very successful up until last Saturday,” head coach John Danowski said. “So I’m sure that [Virginia head coach Dom Starsia] is confident and their players are confident that all they have to do is play a little better to win.”
Last week’s win was the ninth straight for the Blue Devils, who have not lost since March 10 against North Carolina. Duke’s win gave the team the nation’s longest winning streak and made it arguably the hottest team in the country. But there’s always something to improve—the Blue Devils converted only one of their four extra-man opportunities.
“We just want to get better,” Danowski said. “Certainly we felt that we weren’t as good as we could’ve been, and defensively there were certainly some plays that we would’ve liked to have back.”
One thing Duke won’t need to improve is its faceoff performance. Sophomore defenseman and faceoff specialist CJ Costabile was named ACC Player of the Week after going 10-for-13 in the face-off circle, which allowed Duke to control possession and tempo in a dominant second half.
Despite Duke’s momentum, the rest of the ACC is certainly more than up to the task of competing for the ACC championship. Not only did Duke lose in its first meetings with No. 5 Maryland and No. 3 North Carolina, but the national rankings also demonstrate the strength of the conference.
All four ACC teams are locks for at-large bids to the 16-team NCAA championship bracket, regardless of what happens this weekend, and four of the top five teams in both major national polls come from the ACC. No. 1 Syracuse, the only non-ACC team currently in the top five, lost to Virginia at home in its only match against an ACC team this season.
Right now, though, the Blue Devils just want to stay focused on the task at hand, rather than worry about which team might await them if they get a chance to play the ACC championship game.
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