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Squad seeks revenge

Virginia makes second trip in six days to No. 1-seeded Duke for semifinals

The second time's the charm - or at least that's what the Virginia men's lacrosse team hopes as it faces Duke for the second time in six days.

The No. 10 Cavaliers return to Durham, N.C. for the semifinals of the ACC Tournament after suffering a tough 13-11 defeat to the Blue Devils last Saturday. During this trip to Duke, Virginia is ready to avenge last weekend's loss.

"You build a little fire after you lose to a team," senior midfielder Shamel Bratton said. "We get to make some adjustments, but we're going to be the underdogs. To get another crack at it, it'll be fun. If you're a competitor, that's all you want: another chance."

The underdog role is not particularly familiar to the Cavaliers, as they enter the tournament as the lowest seed for only the third time since the tournament began in 1989. If Virginia wins Friday, it will face the winner of the Maryland-North Carolina matchup Sunday. But right now, the Cavaliers refuse to look past Duke.

"We have a chance to go into these ACC Championships this season and hopefully play two quality teams," senior goalie Adam Ghitelman said. "But we're focused on Duke right now. To beat those guys would be huge for our team especially because of the recent games and how they turned out."

Virginia's recent games against Duke are ones the team would rather forget - the Cavaliers have lost 10 out of their last 11 contests against the Blue Devils, including a 14-13 defeat during last year's national semifinals. The team's lone recent victory came during last season's ACC semifinals as the Cavaliers went on to win the 2010 ACC Championship. The team hopes to repeat that performance this year and is confident it can improve on last week's results.

"I went back and looked at the film from this past weekend's game and it didn't nearly look as bad as it felt when we were in the middle of it," coach Dom Starsia said. "I thought our effort was pretty good overall. Duke scored some easy goals and we didn't get any. We just have to be better."

Getting better will be easier if junior attackman Steele Stanwick can return to the team. Stanwick just earned ACC Player of the Year honors, but missed last weekend's contest with a foot injury, and his status is uncertain for this week's game. After losing redshirt junior defenseman Matt Lovejoy to season-ending shoulder surgery earlier this year, Virginia knows it cannot afford to lose another key starter.

"It's tough not having a guy like Steele," Ghitelman said. "He's arguably the best player in the country. You ask any team to play without their best player, it's going to take a toll on your team ... We'll be glad to have him back."

With or without Stanwick, the team needs a strong ACC performance to boost its seeding for the upcoming NCAA Tournament. For now, however, the team is just worried about playing.

"I don't even have an idea of what we're ranked right now or what we possibly could be seeded if the season ended right now," Bratton said. "I'm just ready to play. If we're in the playoffs, we'll be there to play."

Faceoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. Friday. The championship game will be played Sunday afternoon at 3:30 in Durham, N.C..

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