Fresh off three straight road victories, a fired-up Duke wrestling team opened its ACC season this weekend with a hard-fought 19-15 loss to the Virginia Cavaliers in Charlottesville, Va.
In a meet that went down to the wire, Virginia (4-5, 1-1 in the ACC) was able to pull ahead of the Blue Devils in the later rounds. Cavalier redshirt sophomore Brian Muir's major decision over Frank Cornely in the 174-pound weight class cost Duke four team points and put the Cavaliers up for good, 13-12.
Cornely, only a freshman, has posted dominant numbers for the Blue Devils, with a 22-10 record this season as Duke's only 174-pounder. But Saturday afternoon, the Pennsauken, N.J., native was introduced to the ACC.
The Blue Devils (8-5, 0-1) pulled out to an early lead as the lighter weight classes posted three out of four wins.
Sophomore Tommy Hoang and senior Sean Meakim gave Duke an early 6-0 lead with victories in the 125 and 133-pound weight classes.
Hoang's victory marked his 41st career win and his 15th this season.
Junior Harry Clarke then fell to Virginia's Bob Seidel at 141 with a 6-3 decision that cut the Blue Devils' lead in half.
Andy Soliman recorded Duke's last win for four matches at 149, defeating Ernesto Vera via a fall with 4:48 remaining in the match to go up 12-3. Soliman's win evens his career record at 14-14, and ups his road winning steak to four.
"The lighter weights did really well," freshman heavyweight Levi Karnehm said. "[For the heavier weights], there were some tough guys on top and I think we really went with them. We just lost some close ones."
The Blue Devils watched their early lead dwindle as Duke dropped the next four matches. Josh Sheridan, Tim Marcantonio and Tom Cass all lost their weight classes, which, along with Cornely's loss, put Virginia up 16-12.
"We did pretty well, but we lost a couple of different weights that we shouldn't have," Karnehm said.
Duke refused to quit as 197-pound Daegan Smith delivered a strong showing to overthrow Zach Freday, 13-8, to come within a single point of the Cavaliers.
With the match riding on his shoulders, Cavalier heavyweight Ryan Painter overpowered Duke's Karnehm for a 10-3 decision. Painter's triumph gave Virginia the three points it needed to cement its first ACC duel match of the season, while Duke began the conference season in defeat.
"I had been [in that position] several times before," said Karnehm of his final position. "If I won, we'd win the match. It wasn't new for me, but there was a good bit of pressure. I was up against a fairly tough, strong kid and I couldn't pull off the points we needed to win."
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