Lakers-Celtics. Coke-Pepsi. Clinton-Gingrich. Some rivalries just come naturally. Add Virginia-Duke to that list.
In college soccer, no rivalry has been as consistently brilliant as the battle of perennial Atlantic Coast Conference heavy hitters Virginia and Duke.
All the elements are there: national success on both sides, regional bragging rights at stake, and of course, epic battles with dramatic finishes.
"It's always a huge game," Duke junior Josh Henderson said. "It's Virginia-Duke. It's been a rivalry since before we got here."
The No. 12 Cavaliers and No. 3 Blue Devils will renew the nation's fiercest competition Saturday night at Duke Soccer Stadium at 7 p.m.. As usual, it's the ACC's marquee matchup of the season.
Duke (13-2, 4-1 ACC) is riding high, alone in first place in the conference. A win would guarantee a top seed-and a valuable first-round bye in the ACC Tournament. Virginia (9-2-3, 2-1-1), has recovered from a slow start in which the Cavs won just two of their first five matches. They've won seven of nine, and have shot back into the ACC-and national-title picture.
"[The slow start] was a surprise to me, in the fact that they're such a great team," Duke junior Jay Heaps said. "When you're on the top, teams gun for you. For UVa, that's what happened all season."
Five-time NCAA champion Virginia is college soccer's version of the Chicago Bulls. The undisputed Team of the Decade has churned out five national players of the year since 1989. But with losses to American University and N.C. State earlier this year, the Cavaliers enter Saturday's game ranked lower than the Blue Devils for the first time in recent memory.
"Now we're at the top, and UVa's going to be gunning for us," Heaps said. "And we've got the same mentality as they do coming into the game. That's why it's going to be such a great matchup."
Virginia barely leads the all-time series 27-26-7. Since 1992, the two teams have met a total of 11 times, with UVa winning six, including 3-0 in the 1992 NCAA semifinals. Duke got revenge in 1995, putting a halt to Virginia's unprecedented run of four straight NCAA titles. The Blue Devils knocked off an undefeated Cavalier squad 3-2 at the Final Four in Richmond.
Last year, UVa crushed Duke 6-1 in driving rain at Klockner Stadium in Charlottesville. The loss sent the Blue Devils into a tailspin from which they never recovered. Duke lost three of its last four games-including a heartbreaking 3-2 decision against the Cavs in the ACC tournament-and did not receive an NCAA bid.
"That was definitely the low point in the season," Henderson said of the 6-1 loss. "It was embarrassing."
Tied 1-1 at the half, the Cavs poured on four goals in a span of two minutes and sent the Blue Devils back to Durham a confused and broken team.
"When the final whistle blew, I just remember putting my head down, and it was one of the worst moments in losing in my life," Heaps said. "You just want to yell and scream to the soccer gods, but nothing can happen [to change it]."
It's a role reversal, but now Duke is the team on the rise, and Virginia is looking for answers in a sub par season by its standards. Will revenge be a factor in this contest?
"Basically we got a little bit of payback," Duke sophomore Troy Garner said. "Since they beat us [twice] last year and knocked us out of NCAA's pretty much.
"Right now we're going up, up, up, as opposed to last year. Everybody's playing well, everybody's comfortable. But we have to play [hard]. This is where we started sliding back last year."
UVa head coach George Gelnovatch hasn't forgotten what happened a year ago.
"That was the worst that they have been beat in a long while," he said. "They have that in the back of their minds heading into this game, and they are going to be fired up."
The Blue Devils will be looking for a little of the home field magic that helped them to a dramatic 3-3 tie the last time these two teams met in Durham.
Trailing 3-1 late in the second overtime, Duke mounted a furious rally and Heaps-then a freshman-played the hero with two goals in the final 1:35. The second one came with just five seconds to play on a header that would become legendary.
"That was one of those games, I think, where we matured as a team and a lot of the freshmen matured as players," Heaps said. "A lot of people thought it was over, and our team never stopped. That was key."
Gelnovatch doesn't relish returning to Duke Soccer Stadium.
"Duke has always been a tough place for us to play," he said. "For Virginia, it's the toughest place to play in the country."
Notes: Virginia has won at Duke just three times in the eighteen years since John Rennie took over as head coach of the Blue Devils... Overall, the Blue Devils are 158-43-14 at home during that span... Saturday night will be "Fan Appreciation Night" at Duke Soccer Stadium, with door prizes given away to students
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