cville-lax.com

Via UVa Sports Information; additional reporting: cville-lax.com

One of the most highly-anticipated lacrosse games of the season had a storybook ending. Unfortunately for the Virginia Cavaliers, the storybook was all about the team from Durham.

A national television audience and 6,588 fans at Koskinen Stadium saw Duke, despite trailing for virtually the entire game, claw their way back with a 3-1 run beginning just a minute before the end of the third quarter. The run, capped by Blue Devil Matt Danowski’s goal with six minutes left, pushed the game into overtime tied at 6. Once in OT, the Cavaliers gained then lost possession, putting Duke’s destiny into their own hands.

After the Blue Devils missed their first shot in OT, Virginia junior Jack Riley overplayed Duke’s Brad Ross at the top of the crease, hanging goalie Kip Turner out to dry. As Riley sailed out of the play, Danowski fed Ross from the right pipe. In one fluid move, Ross moved left and flipped the ball over his shoulder, behind his back, past Turner, for the 7-6 win.

The loss snapped the Cavaliers’ 10-game winning streak as they fall to 10-2 overall and 2-1 in the ACC. The Blue Devils secured the top seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament by improving to 10-2 overall and 3-0 in the conference.

Despite the loss, Turner’s performance was nothing short of heroic. Besides a career-high 20 saves, Turner led a cavalry-charge clear in the fourth quarter and hit Ben Rubeor for an assist. As a whole, Virginia’s defense held Duke nearly five goals under its season average and forced the Blue Devils to shoot a season-low 15.9 percent.

Virginia used goals by Jack Riley, Foster Gilbert and Max Pomper to build a 3-1 lead early in the second quarter.

Ross notched two in a row as Duke tied the score at three in the opening minutes of the second half. Virginia’s Rubeor, the nation’s leading scorer, answered Ross’ second goal to push Virginia back in front at 4-3. Steve Giannone extended the Cavalier advantage to 5-3 at the 6:13 mark of the third.

Mike Catalina and Zack Greer scored back-to-back goals 80 seconds apart to force the game’s third tie at 5-all.

With just under nine minutes to play, Turner helped his own cause by fielding a loose ball in front and dashing downfield. Once in his offensive zone, he hit Rubeor with a perfect lead pass. Rubeor made the easy finish with 8:48 left as the Cavaliers regained the lead once again at 6-5.

Duke’s Matt Danowski scored his only goal of the game with 6:01 to play to send the game to overtime. Neither defense budged in the final six minutes, sending the game to the extra period.

In the overtime period, Virginia gained the first possession, but turned the ball over at the 2:53 mark without taking a shot.

Duke cleared the ball and missed its first shot. On the restart Danowski found Ross cutting in front of the goal. Ross beat Turner with a unstoppable behind the back shot to send Duke to its fifth win in a row.

Virginia returns to action next Saturday (April 21) at home against Dartmouth. The game is scheduled to face off at 1 p.m.