Typically, defending national champions do not find themselves at the bottom of their conference standings. But that is exactly where the Virginia men's lacrosse team finds itself at this point in the season.
"Right now we're in the basement of the ACC, and we've got to change that," attackman Matt Ward said. "There's no reason that I feel we should be there, but we are, and we have to do something about it to get out of it."
The No. 15 Cavaliers (3-6, 0-2 ACC) will have their last chance of the season to get an ACC win when they host the No. 13 Duke Blue Devils (4-5, 0-2 ACC) at 1 p.m. tomorrow in a must-win game.
Both teams will be looking to gain momentum heading into next week's ACC tournament in Chapel Hill. After starting the season 4-1, Duke has not won in a month. The Blue Devils have dropped four straight games to nationally ranked teams, including the top-10 squads of Johns Hopkins and North Carolina, in the past month.
Virginia, which entered the season ranked No. 1, has not lived up to preseason expectations. Virginia has dropped its two most recent games, both of which were in-conference. The Cavaliers, in danger of ending the season with a losing record, need to finish the year with a string of wins to have any hope of receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. If Virginia does not make the tournament, it would be the first time in 11 years that the Cavaliers failed to reach the postseason.
"The NCAAs are of no concern of mine right now -- it's not something we talk about," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. "I think everybody knows how narrow the window is right now. I'd just like to see us play a smart, complete lacrosse game."
One problem for the Cavaliers this season has been a less-than-stellar offense. Virginia's offense has recorded double digits in goals in only two games this season. Ward, who leads the team with 20 goals, is the only Cavalier with a double-digit total in that category.
"We're a team that's not going to run up and down the field and get 16 or 17 goals right now, so we need to make sure that we're exploring the quality of our opportunities and getting the best opportunities that we can," Starsia said. "Patience on offense is a requirement right now because we do need to look for the right matchups."
Virginia will face a Duke team that has a potent offense. The Blue Devils have scored 98 goals on the season. Duke also has three players with at least 24 points on the season, led by freshman Matt Danowski, who has 27.
"As a team we just have to play at 100 percent," Ward said. "Duke is a young team, a good team -- they played UNC closer than we did, and they played Maryland closer than we did, so we just have to realize that we need to play well."
A key aspect of the game will be faceoffs. Both teams have won fewer than 50 percent of their faceoffs on the season. Virginia (.481) has a slightly better percentage than Duke (.443).
A highlight of this game should be the matchup between Virginia's penalty kill and the man-up attack of the Blue Devils. Duke is second in the nation in man-up offense, going 18-35 (.514) when their opponent is serving out a penalty. Virginia has done a good job stifling their opponents' man-up offense. The Cavaliers have only given up seven man-up goals this season, and are holding opponents to a .156 man-up conversion percentage, which is the fifth best in the nation.
The Cavaliers will be fighting for their playoff lives when they take the field at Klöckner Stadium tomorrow afternoon.
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