After a hard-fought, hour-long battle, the No. 5 Virginia women's lacrosse team fell short during the final seconds of last night's matchup against in-state rival James Madison, losing by a score of 10-9.
Senior midfielder and team scoring leader Kaitlin Duff put the Cavaliers (6-3, 1-1 ACC) ahead first, netting a shot off the right side of the cage at the 27:57 mark. The Dukes' scoring leader, redshirt senior midfielder Kim Griffin, countered just a minute later to tie the game. But the Cavaliers quickly regained the lead with three unanswered goals to take a 4-1 advantage within the first 10 minutes of the match. No. 20 JMU remained resilient and chipped away at the Virginia lead throughout the remainder of the first period of play, however, as the two teams were knotted at five goals apiece by the end of the first half.
Both offenses were stagnant out of the intermission, failing to score during the first eight minutes of the second period. Senior midfielder Brittany Kalkstein netted the first goal of the half at the 21:13 mark off a quick dish from sophomore attacker and team-assist leader Josie Owen. Sophomore midfielder Julie Gardner added another score for the Cavaliers nearly six minutes later to give the Virginia squad a slight two-goal advantage against its opponent.
Despite facing a deficit to one of the top teams in the nation, the Dukes remained poised and again tied the score at 9-9 heading into the final two-and-a-half minutes of the contest. With only 11.3 seconds remaining, Griffin bounced the ball past Virginia redshirt junior goalkeeper Lauren Benner to put James Madison ahead. Although the Cavaliers won the subsequent draw control, there simply was not enough time left on the clock to send the match to overtime.
"I don't think we played well," Virginia coach Julie Myers said after the game. "It was not a well-executed game or well-thought-through game really on anyone's part. [There were] lots of blown opportunities."
The upset marks Virginia's first defeat since March 5, when the squad lost to No. 2 Maryland by a score of 5-11, and is also the first time the Cavaliers have fallen to the Dukes since 2000.
"I just think we really couldn't stop their momentum," junior defender Liz Downs said. "For every good thing they had, they'd have a couple good things in a row, and we just couldn't answer back to their intensity. We couldn't really get in our own rhythm. I felt like we were conceding to their play the entire game."
The Cavaliers look to redeem themselves this Saturday as they travel to Durham, N.C. to take on No. 3 Duke. The Blue Devils, who currently are riding a five game win-steak during which they have surrendered a mere 7.2 goals per game, should prove to be quite a formidable opponent.
During this same stretch, the Duke offense has outscored its opponents by a margin of nearly seven goals per game. The Blue Devils lead the ACC in shots per game with nearly 30.5 attempts - quite a challenge for Benner and the rest of the Cavalier defense to match up against.
"Duke's obviously a great team," Myers said. "It's a chance to beat a top-four ranked team, so that would kind of correct and undo some of the damage from tonight. That's the beauty of the regular season - you get to do it again."
After Saturday's matchup against Duke, the Cavaliers return home to face non-conference foe and in-state rival Old Dominion - a program that has edged Virginia only once in 33 tries. The opening draw is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Kl
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