The No. 4 Virginia women's lacrosse team fell into a hole early and never recovered as the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils handed the Cavaliers their third loss of the season, 12-7, yesterday at Klockner stadium. Duke keeper Sheila Powenski's 15 saves led the Blue Devils to victory.
Virginia (8-3, 1-2 ACC) was plagued by mistakes from the start of the match.
"I don't think we executed well," Virginia coach Julie Myers said. "In the first half I don't think we were good on draws or ground balls, and we certainly didn't make any saves."
Duke (10-1, 2-1) pressured the Cavaliers from the opening whistle and never let up. By halftime, Duke had amassed an 8-2 lead with only thirty minutes to go in regulation.
"I think that '8-2' can break a team's back," Myers said. "I think today it got the better of us."
The Cavaliers were looking to knock off the Blue Devils again, which would have made it two seasons in a row after beating them in Durham, N.C. last year.
Duke junior attacker Corrine Broesler opened up the second-half scoring for the Blue Devils, increasing their lead to 9-3 -- the largest gap of the second half.
Virginia then would respond with two goals of its own from junior midfielder Morgan Thalenberg and sophomore attacker Amy Appelt.
Appelt worked her way around the top of the goal, dashed toward the net, weaved in and out of defenders and side-armed a shot past Powenski. Duke's lead was cut to 9-4, but Virginia would come no closer.
Powenski would prove not only to be the Blue Devils last line of defense but also their best, making key saves when the Cavaliers put on the offensive pressure.
"We knew she was going to be a good goalie," Myers said. "She's a lefty, which you don't face often."
Throughout the course of the season, Virginia has been out-shooting its opponents consistently, however, this does not always translate for the Cavaliers as they out-shot the Blue Devils yesterday but still came up short in the end.
"We had good looks at the goal but just look at the stats," Myers said. "We shot 30 times -- they had 15 saves. They shot 22 times -- we had six. It ends up being a pretty big difference in the game."
Virginia may have enjoyed a slight advantage in draws and ground balls but failed to get them in key situations.
"We needed to get the ground balls and draws to win the game and we didn't," Thalenberg said.
Each team would add three more goals to its totals before the final whistle sounded, with Duke taking the win, 12-7.
With the win, Duke is now 2-1 in the conference with only two games remaining before the ACC tournament. A rematch between the two squads is likely.
"We're really fired up and excited that we get to play them again," Appelt said.
The Cavaliers will have two days to prepare for their next game against in-state rival Virginia Tech, in Charlottesville. In that time, Myers hopes to build from today's loss and work on the small errors the Cavaliers have been making.
"I'm looking forward to having a game in two days," she said.
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