Virginia Women's Lacrosse Stumbles in 15-10 Loss at Duke

Saturday's Virginia women's lacrosse game on Saturday at Duke was a game of firsts. But not in a good way for the Cavaliers, who suffered back-to-back losses for the first time this season, lost to an unranked opponent for the first time, suffered their first road loss and their first defeat by more than one goal.

An 8-1 run spanning the second and third quarters put the Blue Devils in the driver's seat and Duke (8-5, 3-3 ACC) never looked back, knocking off No. 8 Virginia (9-3, 3-3 ACC) on Saturday afternoon at Koskinen Stadium in Durham.

The game started well enough for the visiting Cavaliers, who were looking to get back on track after last weekend's 15-14 heartbreaker to then-No. 7 Syracuse. Kiki Shaw and Kate Miller found the back of the net to give UVA an early 2-0 lead and Duke didn't score until nearly 12 minutes into the match. But then the dam burst as Caroline DeBellis scored twice and Maddie McCorkle scored to put Duke in front 3-2 at the end of the first quarter.

Virginia again started the next period strong, getting goals from Mackenzie Hoeg and Katia Carnevale to regain a 4-3 lead, but the Cavaliers would go scoreless for the rest of the half. Duke closed the second quarter on a 5-0 run, including three-straight goals from Katie DeSimone, who beat the buzzer with her third to give her Blue Devils an 8-4 halftime advantage.

Virginia struck first in the second half on an unassisted goal by Jenna Dinardo, but it was once again temporary progress for the Cavaliers, who allowed the Blue Devils to answer with three more goals, two of which came from DeBellis. Hoeg scored off a dish from Carnevale to stop the bleeding, but DeBellis found the back of the net for the fifth time to make it 12-6 at the end of the third.

Duke led by as many as seven at 13-6 before Shaw, Dinardo, and Kate Galica scored goals to try to spark a comeback effort. But UVA's rally was much too late and much too slowly developing and Duke went on to win 15-10.

Duke had a 15-11 edge in draw controls, but the possession disadvantage was not as significant as it has often been this season, as the Blue Devils had 18 turnovers as compared to 12 for the Cavaliers. The real issues came from Virginia's failure to execute in settled possessions on both ends of the field. UVA's defense, which has been much improved this season, couldn't stay in front of Duke's cutters, leading to six goals for Caroline DeBellis and four for Katie DeSimone. Mel Josephson struggled in between the pipes, making four saves and allowing 13 goals, while Abby Jansen gave up two goals in about four minutes of action.

On the other end, Virginia couldn't find space in front of the cage. Morgan Schwab was limited to zero goals and only two assists and while Galica, Hoeg, Shaw, and Dinardo each had two goals, no Cavalier had more than two goals in the game.

Now 9-3 and 3-3 in the ACC, Virginia returns home for a mid-week non-conference matchup with VCU on Wednesday at 6pm at Klockner Stadium.