The men’s lacrosse team ended its perfect home season with a nearly perfect game.
In what Duke head coach Mike Pressler called the “biggest regular-season win” in his tenure, the second-ranked Blue Devils dominated No. 3 Virginia 17-2 at Koskinen Stadium Saturday. The win capped off Duke’s first ever undefeated ACC season and secured the Blue Devils’ first regular-season conference title since 1999.
Duke will square off against North Carolina as the top seed for the ACC Championship beginning April 29 in Baltimore.
The near-capacity crowd witnessed a contest that was never in doubt, as Duke kept the ball in its attacking zone for the majority of the first half and outshot the Cavaliers 42-21 over the course of the game.
Eight days after a heartbreaking double-overtime loss at No.1 Johns Hopkins in which the Blue Devils gave up a two-goal lead in the fourth quarter, the team showed no lingering signs of the disappointment. Duke shut down an offense that was averaging nearly 13 goals per contest entering the game, handing Virginia its worst loss since 1959. Ten different Blue Devils found the net in the rout as freshman Zack Greer led the way with four goals.
“What a great day—reunion weekend, we had 95 alums back, Senior Day—you couldn’t draw a better picture,” Pressler said. “Honestly, I was very shocked the score got away like that. I would never in my right mind picture that that would happen.”
With 7:15 remaining in the second quarter and Duke (12-1, 3-0 in the ACC) leading Virginia 4-0, Blue Devil midfielder Michael Ward turned the ball over in Duke’s defensive zone. Cavalier attackman Matt Ward picked up the loose ball and hurried toward the goal with fellow attackman John Christmas alongside. Only Duke goalie Aaron Fenton stood in their way.
It seemed certain that the two-on-zero break would result in Virginia’s first goal of the game, cutting the Duke advantage to three and giving the visitors some much-needed momentum. Fenton would not allow it, however, as the senior stepped up and intercepted Ward’s poor crossing pass.
Every time it appeared Virginia (8-2, 2-1) might make a play to somehow mount a comeback, Fenton or another member of the Blue Devil defense would step up to make a stop. Duke’s defense was so dominant that it held the Cavaliers to a mere four shots in the first half and without a score for the first 43 minutes of the game.
“That’s the best ‘D’ we’ve played all year,” Fenton said. “That makes my job a lot easier, makes me a lot more confident knowing that we aren’t going to give up bad shots.”
Only 40 seconds after Fenton’s goal-saving interception, Duke junior Kyle Dowd found Greer open in front of the Virginia net. Greer quickly turned and fired a shot over the left shoulder of Cavalier goalie Kip Turner to give the Blue Devils a 5-0 lead that they would extend to seven by halftime.
“Our offense has been great all year, and today was obviously an example of that,” Greer said. “Everybody was moving the ball like we have all year. We were just running the offense like we do and finding the open man, and that seemed to be working for us today.”
Duke carried its first-half momentum into the opening minutes of the third quarter, when sophomore Matt Danowski split two defenders to give the Blue Devils an eight-goal lead. Danowski added another goal, his third straight, 90 seconds later by bouncing the ball over Turner’s head and into the net.
“I thought it was crucial that we scored those two goals right out of halftime to never allow Virginia to get back in it,” Pressler said. “That was the key to the game.”
Although Duke’s aggressive defense created a number of steals, Virginia compounded its problems with many unforced errors and missed opportunities.
The Cavaliers may meet the Blue Devils again in the finals of the ACC Tournament, and Virginia head coach Dom Starsia said he hoped to see a better effort from his team in the future.
“I give Duke all the credit in the world, they played great today,” Starsia said. “They’re the best team to play against us this year, but I don’t think we put up much of a fight.”
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