CHAPEL HILL -- When Duke took the field Sunday for the ACC championship, the team appeared excited and prepared to capture its first ever conference title. But after the top-seeded Blue Devils jumped out to an early 3-1 lead in the first eight minutes of action, Virginia took over, earning a dominating 17-7 victory.
The second-seeded Cavaliers (15-3, 4-1 in the ACC) limited Duke (11-5, 4-1) to just two goals in a 44-minute stretch that put the game out of reach.
"I feel like we were very well prepared coming into this game from a tactical standpoint and a mental standpoint," Blue Devils' head coach Kerstin Kimel said. "Unfortunately that didn't manifest itself on the field today for us."
Duke began the game with the aggression that most expected, as Meghan Miller scored just over 30 seconds into play. Virginia tied the contest on its first possession, but the Blue Devils were able to control the tempo of the game in the early going with patient offensive sets.
"We were up 3-1, and we just started a really serious downhill spiral of turning the ball over and poor decision making in transition," Kimel said. "It just was tough."
From that moment on, ball control became a serious problem as Duke turned it over 20 times in the game. These turnovers gave the Cavaliers fast break chances leading to easy goals for an offense featuring the nation's leading scorer Amy Appelt, who now has 75 goals on the season. She had two assists and scored five goals, four in the second half during yesterday's win.
Tournament MVP Ashleigh Haas did much of the damage in a seven-goal run that put UVa ahead 8-3. The first of her three tallies came as teammate Caitlin Banks stole the ball and passed it to her downfield. With no one between her and the goalie, Haas put the ball into the right side of the net.
Then the native of Berwyn, Penn., scooped up a loose ball just outside the crease and skipped it past Duke's goalie Meghan Huether to give the eventual champions the lead for good.
Virginia was better in nearly every facet of the game Sunday, but the Blue Devils felt that they just did not play up to the cav's challenge.
"What's hard for us is we let Virginia dictate tempo," Kimel said. "We let them dictate pretty much everything to us today, and we didn't have the fight that we usually do."
Duke advanced to the championship game by defeating North Carolina Friday afternoon in a closely contested 12-11 win.
Neither team led by more than two goals at any point, and at halftime the Tar Heels were up 6-4. Freshman Leigh Jester had four of her career-high five goals in the second period, and Sophomore Katie Chrest also recorded a hat trick, including the one that put Duke ahead 11-10 with just over 15 minutes remaining.
North Carolina tied the game minutes later to set up the dramatic finish. After picking the ball up in UNC territory, freshman Meghan Ferguson took it all the way to the cage scoring the game winner, her first career goal. A Duke turnover as the team tried to run out the clock forced Huether to stop a shot in the closing seconds to secure the victory.
Following the exhilaration of Friday's win, the disappointment of the defeat at the hands of Virginia is something the Blue Devils will use to motivate themselves the rest of the season.
"We weren't playing smart," Kimel said. "Virginia was and they capitalized on a lot of our mistakes. It's demoralizing, and it's something that we have to work harder on to perform better under those circumstances."
For their play this weekend Chrest, Jester, Miller and Meghan Walters were all named to the ACC tournament team.
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