It’s such an old story the team’s captains have elected to not talk about it. The media has grown weary of asking about it. To everyone in Charlottesville, it has been baked into the bones so much that it is no longer worthy of comment.
But still the streak stretched on.
Twenty-two years, coming into this season. Twenty games. Brendan Millon, the team’s co-leader in points in the game that finally did it, had not been born the last time Virginia beat Duke in the regular season. Nor had 31 of the team’s 44 players.
Saturday, at Koskinen Stadium, the No. 16 Cavaliers (7-4, 2-0 ACC) beat the No. 7 Blue Devils (8-2, 0-2 ACC) 14-10. They ended the most gravity-defying streak in college lacrosse. But no one, in the week leading up, wanted to discuss it.
“Everyone knows we haven’t had a whole lot of success here,” Coach Lars Tiffany said. “But the captains didn’t want to talk about the streak.”
Virginia meets before practice Sundays. The meeting sets the tone for the week. Things to work on, points to highlight. Logic might say that of course the team would mention the streak. Prime fodder for motivation.
“The focus,” graduate goalie Jake Marek said, “was on, ‘Who cares about the record?’”
The team emphasized everything except the streak.
“What’s the game plan?” Tiffany said. “What’s our offensive plan? What’s our defensive plan? It was just so focused.”
Nine of Duke and Virginia’s regular-season meetings since 2004 have been decided by two goals or fewer, and two of those went to overtime. Virginia was able to rank among the top teams in the country, even go on to win a national title — four since 2004. But it was never, not in the regular season, able to beat Duke.
So Virginia could always be forgiven a sense of fatalism. But part of the streak’s magnetic quality was that the star players on the miserable end had gotten used to losing this matchup. Introduce a crop of fresh players, and the magnet’s pull breaks.
Four of Virginia’s 10 starters Saturday were either offseason transfers or freshman, and lead faceoff man Andrew Greenspan transferred two seasons ago from Notre Dame. Graduate defender Aidan Murnane, who forced four turnovers off the bench, transferred this offseason from Colgate.
“None of us have played against [Duke] on a Virginia team,” Marek, an Air Force transfer, said. “So it meant a lot for us, because we wanted to win, obviously. But we didn’t care. We just wanted to focus on us.”
The date of the last Virginia win over Duke in the regular season — Virginia has won twice in the postseason — was April 17, 2004, a 13-4 result. Virginia had not won at Koskinen Stadium since 2003.
In Duke’s bid to prolong the streak, the Blue Devils found an edge by surprising Virginia with a 10-man ride. Tiffany’s scouting showed Duke never used it against No. 5 Syracuse, and sparingly a week before against Denver. The Cavaliers were unprepared for that level of pressure, getting flustered into five failed clears in the first half and 12 turnovers — destructive numbers.
“Our defenders showed more poise in the second half,” Tiffany said. “So that was what we talked about most at halftime.”
Virginia finished with 21 turnovers and a mark of 20-28 on clears compared to Duke’s 17 and 19-21. Part of the reason it still managed to win was Marek’s 13 saves. It looked like he was out there catching beach balls.
Virginia may not have been as effective at the faceoff dot as it wanted, going 13-27, its first time losing the battle in four games. But it neutralized what Tiffany felt was a massive threat.
Instead of using a short-stick and a long pole on the faceoff wings, Virginia used two poles all game. It stopped Duke from, after its faceoff wins, trapping Virginia’s faceoff man and creating a man advantage in transition. Tiffany was pleased with the execution.
He was pleased with most things. Finally, at 13-9, with less than five minutes left, the Cavalier contingent started to feel it. Duke fans filtered out.
With less than a minute left, the score at 13-10, Virginia crossed into the offensive zone. Tiffany and offensive coordinator Kevin Cassese — a former Duke star and assistant coach — threw their hands up, signaling to bleed out the clock. A few seconds later senior midfielder Joey Terenzi found himself in front of an empty net and scored. Tiffany punched two fists into the air above his head.
“We’re fortunate today to get ours,” Tiffany said, “and see what happens next time we see Duke. That’s later this year or next year.”
The most likely site for a rematch this year will be the ACC Tournament. Two weeks ago, Virginia looked in danger of being the man out for the second straight year. Now it will almost definitely head to Charlotte.
Saturday’s performance clinched that — and a far more symbolic victory.
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