CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - A week ago, in a matchup to decide the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season men's lacrosse title, Virginia used its patented run-and-gun style of play to top Duke, 17-14.
Sunday at the ACC Tournament finals, the same players showed up for the Cavaliers (10-2) in the same uniforms, this time on their home field. Despite using a completely different style of play, Virginia had the same results as the first matchup, this time scoring a 12-6 win over the Blue Devils (8-3) to win the ACC title.
The Cavaliers used a methodical game plan, straight out of Duke's book, to earn the victory. Virginia deliberately worked the ball around on offense, always making the extra pass. At the same time, it grounded the Duke offense, which had a scoring bonanza in its 17-10 semifinal win over Maryland Friday night, to a virtual halt. The Blue Devils scored only one goal in the second half.
"Last week, Virginia couldn't shoot it quick enough," Duke coach Mike Pressler said. "This time around, they played a much better tempo on offense and forced us to play defense for longer periods of time. That wore out our guys.... Our game is to play half field defense and offense and run when you can, and Virginia beat us at our game today."
Much like the first matchup between the two squads, during which Virginia dominated the second quarter with an 8-0 run to put away the game, the Cavaliers controlled the pace of the second half to put the game in their favor.
After a tight first half, which Virginia finished with two goals in the last 1:23 to take a 6-5 lead, the Cavaliers took over. UVa middie Tucker Radebaugh scored 3:11 into the third quarter to give the Cavaliers a 7-5 edge. Then 2:02 later Cavalier attackman Doug Knight, a first-team All-American and the tournament MVP, took the ball from behind the cage and wrapped around to put it home, increasing UVa's lead to 8-5.
Just 2:56 later, Virginia middie David Wren took the ball off a long setup and cranked it home from 15 yards out to give the Cavaliers a 9-5 lead and force a Duke timeout.
Coming out of the timeout, the struggle continued for the Blue Devils, as they were unable to hold the ball for extended periods of time. When they did steal the ball back from the Cavaliers on the defensive end, Duke had trouble clearing, finishing the day 15-of-26 on clears, including 6-of-12 in the second half, compared to Virginia's 22-of-23.
"We didn't do a good job of clearing the ball," Pressler said. "We did get it back from them, and we threw it away on the clear. I give Virginia credit for the pressure on our guys."
Duke restored a glimmer of
Knight increased Virginia's lead to 10-6 2:30 into the fourth quarter when he drove past senior defenseman Greg Ehrnman for his fourth goal of the game. Duke continued to try to fight back, but the combination of Virginia's stellar defense, clutch saves by UVa goalie Chris Sanderson and bad luck (senior middie Jim Gonnella's shot off the cross bar) held the Blue Devils at bay.
"We just told the kids not to be afraid to make a mistake on defense," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. "We told them to make strong decisions and go with them. That's where we won the game, on the defensive end of the field."
The Cavaliers put the game away for good with just over six minutes remaining, when they scored two goals in 39 seconds to increase their lead to 12-6. Attackman Drew McKnight scored the first on a one-touch on the crease off a pass from Dave Baruch, then Radebaugh scored on a diving shot, getting past the worn down Duke defense.
Virginia's control of the second half was illustrated by the game's hustle statistics-face-offs and ground balls. Virginia topped the Blue Devils in ground balls 29-23 in the second half, led by Knight, who scooped up eight on the day. The Cavaliers only won the face-off battle 5-4 in the second half, but they grabbed all five in a stretch carrying over from the third to fourth quarter when they were gaining control of the game.
"Face-offs have a disproportionate amount of impact on the play of the game," Starsia said. "We are a team that, when we're winning the face-offs and controlling the play, we're so good on offense. We can create opportunities when we have the ball. If we're winning the face-offs and getting the ball, we're tough to handle."
As much as Sunday's game was about the Blue Devils being taken out of their rhythm, Friday night's semifinal with Maryland was an example of complete Duke control. After a slow first quarter, during which they fell behind 2-0, the Blue Devils got back in it when Gonnella scored in front on a feed from sophomore middie Adam Dretler to cut the Maryland lead to 2-1.
The second quarter began in back-and-forth fashion. Pressler called a timeout with 10:04 left in the second quarter, and the Duke attack came out firing. Fourteen seconds later, junior attackman John Fay shot it high to the far post to tie the game at two. At the 8:37 mark, Gonnella scored on a similar shot to the opposite post on an assist from senior attackman Scott Allen to give Duke the lead.
Duke went on to score four more goals, totalling seven in a row, to gain a 7-2 lead. Maryland managed to tally one goal to decrease its deficit to 7-3, but Allen came back less than two minutes later on an assist from Gonnella to give the Blue Devils an 8-3 halftime lead.
"We were a little tentative at first, and we shot the ball poorly," Pressler said. "We started shooting the ball a little higher and not at [Maryland goalie Sean] Keenan's feet.... We started shooting it in the air. We got ignited a little bit. We got some breaks and we handled the ball in the middle of the field."
Duke's offensive showcase continued into the second half. The Terps were able to get on the board seven more times, but the Blue Devils tallied nine second half goals to protect their large halftime lead.
The Duke scoring against Maryland was spread well around. Allen had two goals and five assists, Fay notched four goals and two assists, and Gonnella finished with three and two, respectively.
In addition to Fay, Gonnella and Allen-who are three of Duke's four leading scorers on the year-the Blue Devils got strong production from two unlikely sources, senior attackman Ed Fay and sophomore middie John O'Donnell. Fay, who had only three goals on the year and has spent most of the last two years overshadowed by his younger brother John, scored three goals. O'Donnell, a member of Duke's second midfield line who notched four goals all season, went 5-for-5 on shots to lead the Blue Devils in goals on the night.
"I think the story of the game was the other guys stepping up, not the stars," Pressler said. "John O'Donnell and Eddie Fay... we haven't really counted on them all year and they come through with eight goals between them.
"Our other guys really stepped up. To win these kinds of playoff games, you've got to do that. They're keying on [Scott] Diggs, they're keying on Gonnella, they know our defense is tough. We had to get something from our other guys. Eddie being a senior certainly had his best career game today and John O'Donnell was outstanding between the lines."
NOTES: Five Duke players were named to the ACC All-Conference team announced Friday. Senior defenseman Tyler Hardy was named for the third time, John Fay and Gonnella were named for the second time and Ehrnman and goalie Joe Kirmser received the award for the first time. Virginia also had five members of the All-Conference team, while Maryland had two.... After Sunday's game, four Duke players were announced as members of the All-Tournament team - John Fay, Kirmser, Gonnella and O'Donnell.
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