Problems at the faceoff doom Duke

In lacrosse, domination of the faceoff circle can give one team a nearly insurmountable advantage by virtue of nearly continuous possession. Maryland did just that against Duke Sunday in the ACC Championship.

Although the Blue Devils were effective on both offense and defense, they could not stop the Terrapins’ Curtis Holmes from dominating the faceoff X. Holmes helped Maryland control 18 of the game’s 24 faceoffs, and Maryland dominated time of possession while keeping the ball out of Duke’s sticks. That was particularly frustrating for the Blue Devils, given that they outplayed the Terrapins in many other aspects of the game.

Sophomore goaltender Dan Wigrizer outperformed his counterpart Niko Amato, tallying 11 saves to Amato’s nine. After looking lost for most of the first half in Friday night’s win over Virginia, Wigrizer made several excellent saves to keep Duke within reach of Maryland and was ultimately named to the All-ACC tournament team as a result. The Blue Devils had their chances on offense, too—when they had the ball. That just didn’t happen very much.

“When you win 18 of 24 faceoffs, you have a chance to win any game,” Maryland head coach John Tillman said. “[Holmes] is a warrior.”

In the first quarter, Duke was able to overcome Holmes’s faceoff dominance by forcing five Maryland turnovers, allowing the Blue Devil offense to score five goals in the first 13:30. But Duke scored only four more goals for the rest of the game, and only one in the following 20 minutes. The Terrapins went on a 5-1 run to take the lead and completely change the complexion of the game.

“That gives you rhythm when you get the ball a lot on offense,” said senior captain Zach Howell, who was also named to the All-ACC tournament team after leading Duke with three goals against Maryland. “We inevitably lost that rhythm in the second half on offense because we didn’t see the ball much.”

Likewise, the defense struggled to maintain its normal aggressive pressure when forced to guard for such extended periods of time.

“I think if the roles are reversed and we won 75 percent of the faceoffs.... I like our chances if we had the ball that much,” head coach John Danowski said. “They had long possessions—they had two-minute possessions. With those long possessions and wearing you down, it’s hard to focus [on defense].”