Battling a case of the stomach flu, 174-pound senior Matt Hoover tried to jump-start Duke's offensive in its dual meet against Virginia Saturday afternoon.
Unfortunately for Hoover and the rest of the Blue Devils, sometimes illness can overcome even the best efforts.
"Starting out with Hoover, that was a big match for us," coach Clar Anderson said. "He just got the stomach virus this morning, but he said he felt good enough. He did a great job representing us, even though he felt horrible."
Hoover's match was the first of several unfortunate breaks for Duke (5-6, 0-3 in the ACC) on the day. In the end, the Blue Devils were outwrestled by the Cavaliers (4-9, 1-1) 27-11 in Durham.
Brian Muir's 8-4 decision over Hoover gave Virginia a 3-0 lead before Jimi Massey took the mat against Duke's Frank Cornely. Massey's match was his first in several weeks due to injury. The 184-pound Cavalier took a quick 4-0 lead over Cornely in the first period before cruising to a 9-1 major decision, which extended UVa's lead to 7-0.
"We knew Massey was coming to this [match]," Anderson added. "He knew that going into ACCs, he wanted to get the one-seed. [Based on seeing Cornely's match last week against Maryland's
Daegan Smith (197) got the Blue Devils' first points with a devastating first period over Andy DeMartino. Smith took DeMartino down three times in the period and coasted the rest of the way to an 8-5 victory.
However, Virginia's Ryan Painter quickly swung the momentum back in favor of the Cavaliers, disposing of Levi Karnehm 14-5. Painter scored eight points, while only letting Karnehm up twice in the third period, to garner the major decision.
Although the heavyweight bout gave Virginia an 11-3 advantage, the Blue Devils looked as though they had an opportunity to close the gap with a mismatch in the lighter weights.
Instead, the Cavaliers got a huge match out of unexpected talent. UVa's freshman 125-pounder, Byron Dunlap, scored the biggest upset of his collegiate career with a 6-2 decision over Tommy Hoang, a national qualifier. Hoang took Dunlap down early in the first period, but was ridden out the entire second period. Dunlap got a reversal to begin the third and then tilted Hoang for three back points and the victory.
"Once they got ahead of us, we kind of had the fear of failure," Anderson said. "I think the mood of the match changed tremendously with [the 125-pound bout]. Up until that, we planned on being able to come back.
"There's no doubt [this will be a good wake-up call for ACCs]. Facing Virginia and facing Maryland last week, these guys see who they compete with. Fortunately, our guys are pretty analytical and seem to make a big improvement in time for ACCs."
Juniors Stu Holzer (133) and Mike Mitchell (165) wrestled as well as they had all season, despite the fact the team score was, by then, a non-issue. Holzer took Ryan Stewart down three times in the second period and then twice more in the third as he won handily, 14-3.
Mitchell, nursing a sprained MCL, completely overwhelmed Don Carlo-Clauss. Mitchell scored four takedowns and was awarded a point when Carlo-Clauss elbowed him in the face when Mitchell was on top, for an 11-1 major decision.
"I just have to get it out of my mind," Mitchell said of his knee after his team-leading 24th victory. "When you're hurt, you still have to wrestle tough. There are so many guys on this team who are hurt. That's what makes wrestling difficult; you don't have any pads, it's just you and the other guy. You just have to work through it."
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