Duke women's lacrosse snatched its third victory over top-20 opponents, in two weeks, but this one meant a little more.
In Charlottesville, Va., the fourth-ranked Blue Devils (8-2, 2-1 in the ACC) blasted their way to 14 goals and their first-ever win over conference rival Virginia (7-5, 0-3). Following eight consecutive losses dating back to the series' first contest in 1996, Duke scored the first three goals in a 14-10 triumph that marked the most lopsided meeting between the two teams since 1998.
"Obviously the kids were pretty excited," said coach Kerstin Kimel, who credited her six seniors with mentally preparing the team to play Virginia. "What I told them after the game was not to act too excited so that Virginia [does not] feel like this is a really big deal to us."
Duke came close to knocking off Virginia in the past, especially in 1999, when the Cavs survived three one-goal games for victories in the regular season, ACC tournament and NCAA tournament. Saturday afternoon, even after falling behind early, ninth-ranked Virginia stormed back and threatened to again break Duke's heart when it closed to within a single goal with 27 minutes remaining.
But in the next two minutes, the Blue Devils took out five seasons of frustration on the Cavs. Midfielder Kate Kaiser scored back-to-back goals as Duke tallied four in a two-minute span that sealed the historic victory.
"We wanted the freshmen in particular to know how big this game was for us," senior Allison Michels said. "We hadn't beaten this team. We had been embarrassed by them in the past. We didn't want to leave this season not having gotten that one last monkey off our backs."
Although she said her focus was primarily on the defensive end, Kaiser led Duke's attack with five goals and two assists, capitalizing off several of Virginia's 16 turnovers. Her dominating performance left Michels and a couple of the other seniors dancing on Virginia's turf, but Kaiser said the victory meant every bit as much to the rest of the team.
"One of the seniors said, 'I've been waiting four years for this and we finally did it,'" said Kaiser, a junior. "But this was a big win for the juniors and sophomores too. We never beaten Virginia either."
Both Kimel and Kaiser added that the team sensed it was going to break through against the Cavs during a focused warm-up session. Most people were not nearly convinced, despite the fact Duke has enjoyed a much more successful season than Virginia.
"When you have a team that has been your nemesis for a long time, you hear a lot of things like, 'Oh, Duke can't beat Virginia.' I don't like to hear that," Kimel said.
Now she does not have to.
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