There were only two minutes left, two minutes of good defense, two minutes to the ACC Championship, two minutes until the No. 1 Virginia men's lacrosse team broke this year's Virginia sports curse and performed during crunch-time. But alas, it was not meant to be, and after the excitement of the last two minutes was over, it was the No. 7 Duke Blue Devils who walked off the field as the ACC champions with their fists held high and the Cavalier players with disbelief and disappointment in their eyes.
The curse had struck for a third time this year. Virginia's soccer team, with so much promise at No. 2 in the nation, was eliminated quickly in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Also the Cavalier men's basketball team, ranked as high as No. 4 in the nation at one point, was eliminated in the first round of both the ACC tournament and the NIT tournament, and the talk quickly turned into what could have been.
The Cavaliers used the game as an opportunity to evaluate themselves.
One of the major weaknesses of the men's lacrosse team that they realize needs to be corrected is their inability to win face-offs.
"Coming into the game, I expected them to lose" all of the face-offs, coach Dom Starsia said. "But I thought Calvin [Sullivan] and Jack [DeVilliers] battled all day."
Out of 29 face-offs, the Blue Devils won 18 of them, but their most important two would come in the game's last 40 seconds. With two minutes left in the game, Duke scored a goal to pull even at 13-13. The Cavaliers lost the ensuing face-off, and the Blue Devils scored again with 39 seconds left. This would have been enough time for the Cavaliers to get one more good shot off, but once again, they lost the face-off.
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Another factor that really hurt the Cavaliers was the loss of All-American defender Mark Koontz five minutes into the game when he re-injured his knee, which left Virginia reeling and scrambling to find an answer to Alex Lieske, who led the Blue Devils with three goals and three assists.
However, the team is taking the loss in stride and realizes that the major part of the season is still left. Senior attackman Conor Gill sees the loss as a chance for the team to reflect on what they had been doing wrong and get ready to finish the season strong.
"It's nothing to get down about," Gill said. "We'll come back and get ready to play Penn State. We haven't been as sharp on the field, and kind of got away with it. But [Sunday] it came back and bit us."
Although the ACC tournament may be over, the team still has two regular season games left to rebound and prepare itself for the NCAA tournament. The Cavaliers face the Nittany Lions on Saturday as they look to come out strong and bounce back from their first defeat since their March 2 loss to Syracuse. They had won seven straight games, including one over Duke, before the loss to the Blue Devils on Sunday.
The Nittany Lions are coming off an impressive 9-7 win over Bucknell to improve their record to 7-5, including a 4-1 record in the last five games. This will be the Lions last regular season game, as they try to finish their season strong at home before heading into the NCAA tournament.
The Cavaliers will be tough to beat, with a league-high five All ACC players and a sweep of the ACC awards this year.
Koontz was selected as the 2002 ACC men's lacrosse player of the year, the first defensive player to win the award since 1992. Freshman Joe Yevoli won the ACC Rookie of the Year award after leading the Cavaliers with a remarkable 29 goals. Lastly, Starsia was named ACC coach of the year.
Starsia believes that the loss was a good experience and will make the team stronger for the rest of the season.
"I'm glad there's still more lacrosse to be played," Starsia said. "We're a really young team"
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