Thursday tumbles: Duke falters in ACC tourneys
WINSTON-SALEM - It just wasn't Duke's night. Try as they might, the Blue Devils could not put the ball in the cage. It went painfully near the goal, behind it, and one shot even went over it, but the ball just wouldn't go in. Virginia (13-6, 1-3 in the ACC) shut out Duke yesterday 2-0 in the first round of the ACC tournament at Kentner Stadium in Winston-Salem. The loss eliminates Duke from the tournament, while Virginia goes on to play top-seeded Maryland tomorrow night. Down by one at halftime, the second half began with great potential for Duke. Down but not out, the Blue Devils (13-7, 1-3) renewed their offense, taking the ball down the field and almost scoring a goal. Then came a penalty corner. Duke had the perfect opportunity to put the ball in the cage, but it wasn't going to happen. Five seconds later, there was another penalty corner. No goal. Another penalty corner. Duke missed again. Yet another penalty corner, the fourth in a minute, and yet another miss. The defeat represented the Blue Devils' second loss to Virginia in just five days. Last Sunday, the Cavaliers rallied their defense in a draining overtime win against Duke. Yesterday in Winston-Salem, Duke sought retribution for the loss and a chance to win the program's first-ever ACC tournament title. "[The Cavaliers] were mentally tough," coach Liz Tchou said. "After Sunday's game, you might think that we would have the slight edge, but they were tough. And they came out strong and they stuck to their game plan strong. I thought that they played a good game." Duke found itself playing defense for most of the first half. Despite a relatively strong effort to deny UVa the goal, the Cavaliers put one in with 8:59 to go in the first half. "I didn't think that we came out as strong as we could've," Tchou said. "We knew what to expect. They outhustled us and outcut us the balls. They were much more willing to take risks than we were." Virginia rode that momentum to its second goal just two minutes into the second half. Even as Duke stepped up its attack in the remaining minutes of the game, the Blue Devils could not manage to score. "We're all pretty disappointed," senior forward Corey Ceccolini said. "I felt like we dominated most of the second half and it was tough because we weren't putting the ball in the back of the cage. I know we were trying so hard out there to put the ball in the cage, but nothing was going our way." The 10th-ranked Blue Devils went into the ACC tournament as the bottom seed. Despite the tough conference challenge and the disappointing loss, Tchou and her players are still hoping to be invited to the NCAA tournament, which it has not competed in since 1996. "It's kind of out of our hands right now," Tchou said. "I think we've had a great season. I'm really proud of these kids. It's unfortunate that we can't come out to the ACC tournament and win. I think the two losses are very disappointing to our team. "We've had a great season and it would've looked better if we won today. So I don't know what's going to happen." Appropriately, the clock ran out as Duke went for one last penalty corner. But like the nine previous corners, this one too missed the mark. "We definitely had motivation to be victorious," Ceccolini said. "We just wanted to go out and play our hardest, to leave it all out on the field and I know that's what we did. So we walk off the field with no regrets and hopefully, everybody feels that way."