Although two young lacrosse teams each committed 15 turnovers in a back-and-forth contest, the Blue Devils made the most out of their shot opportunities Thursday to advance to the semifinals of the ACC tournament.
Fourth-seeded Duke bested fifth-seeded Virginia 9-8 Thursday at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Va., to set up a second contest with rival North Carolina in less than a week in Friday's semifinals. Although they lost three of their final four games of the regular season, the Blue Devils got off to a hot start against the Cavaliers by scoring five of the game's first six goals and hung on for their second win against Virginia this season.
Sophomores Grace Fallon and Kyra Harney led the way for Duke with three points apiece and goalkeeper Kelsey Duryea notched five saves to help the Blue Devils overcome their 15 giveaways.
“Duke, Virginia and Boston College are all pretty similar teams in that we all graduated a lot of kids and we all play a lot of young people,” Duke head coach Kerstin Kimel told GoDuke.com. “You saw a lot of young mistakes out there under pressure today…. Nonetheless it’s a win and anytime you get a win in the ACC or the ACC tournament it’s a great win.”
After Fallon, Harney and senior Maddy Acton got Duke off to a strong start, the Cavaliers came back to pull within 8-7 with 12:24 left in the game. But the Blue Devil defense stiffened when it had to most and senior Emma Lazaroff hit what proved to be the dagger after a long Duke offensive set with 5:26 left in the game. Although Virginia junior Posey Valis notched her fourth goal of the game with 10.7 seconds remaining to bring Virginia back within one goal, Blue Devil freshman Olivia Jenner won the final draw of the contest to solidify the win and put the Cavaliers away for good.
Kimel noted that past contests that had come down to the wire motivated her team to finish strong Thursday as it tries to solidify an NCAA tournament berth.
“We were in a close game a couple weeks ago with Notre Dame and lost in overtime in a game that we should have won,” Kimel said. “We didn’t do what we needed to do to finish the game and I think that hasn’t sat well with our kids.”
The contest began and ended with long defensive stands from both sides, but Duke's Maddie Crutchfield managed to evade Virginia’s back line and rip a shot just inside the near post to put the No. 17 Blue Devils (10-7) on the board first. The Concord, N.H., native had another to score opportunity not long after, but after the fifth-seeded Cavaliers (9-8) went up a player, they capitalized on a Blue Devil turnover, threading a shot past Duryea to tie the score at one.
Duke dominated from there, with Acton firing a shot past Virginia goalkeeper Rachel Vander Kolk to put the Blue Devils back on top, and Harney—who ranks third in the ACC in scoring—following suit just 1:20 minutes later to give Duke some breathing room. Harney extended that lead even further to notch her second goal of the day, and Acton registered her second a little more than a minute later to put the Blue Devils up by four—their largest lead of the contest.
Although the offense stood out in building Duke's 5-1 lead, Kimel credited her defense for allowing the team to get the ball on the other end of the field and slowing down a Cavalier team that had won four of its last five contests entering the postseason.
“Some of [Virginia’s] kids have really stepped up in the last month since we played them,” Kimel said. “Our defense by and large played very well. We took away a lot of their inside looks and limited some of their main people. Our defense and Duryea did really well in holding strong against them.”
Virginia junior Kelly Reese managed to sneak a shot by Duryea with 3:27 remaining in the half to spur the Cavalier offense, and junior Posey Valis followed suit with another goal to send Virginia to the locker room down two at the break.
Duke opened the scoring in the second period, with Fallon converting on a wide-open shot for her first of the contest. The Monmouth Beach, N.J., native had an opportunity to notch another goal on the following possession, but Virginia’s defense held strong through the prolonged Blue Devil onslaught.
“Every timeout opportunity we got, we reiterated the same thing,” Kimel said. “We had to just focus on us and focus on our game plan and just being in moment. We had to have faith in the game plan and faith in each other when we’re out there and take care of each other on the field.”
The rest of the game was a back-and-forth affair. The Cavaliers struck back with 19:39 remaining with a quick goal from Boyd, her second of the game. Fallon responded with a drop in goal from just outside the crease for her second score of the contest.
Valis notched her second goal of the contest with 16:03 minutes to go to pull Virginia within two once again. Seconds later, senior Kelci Smesko ripped a cross-body shot to extend Duke’s lead back to three. As it did throughout the game, Virginia responded, this time with Reese sending another ball flying past Duryea. Valis then pulled the Cavaliers within one with 12:24 to go—notching a hat trick in the process—before the Blue Devils held off Virginia's furious rally following Lazaroff's timely score.
Duke will look for another fast start Friday against the top-ranked Tar Heels at 5 p.m. in Friday evening's semifinals. The Blue Devils fell to the Tar Heels 16-8 in Chapel Hill last Saturday.
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