The No. 3 Virginia women's lacrosse team (9-1, 2-1 ACC) has not performed this well 10 games into the season since 1994, when the Cavaliers managed a 13-4 record. Yet after beating No. 10 James Madison, Virginia's schedule does not get any easier as the squad prepares to face the No. 4 team in the country, Duke (8-1, 1-1 ACC), tomorrow at noon.
"We fought really hard [against James Madison]," coach Julie Myers said. "We kept our intensity at a really high level the entire time."
After gaining a 5-1 lead in the first half, the Dukes went on a six-goal run. The Cavaliers, however, were able to regain the lead, going into the half up 11-8, and never relinquished it. Virginia ended the game victorious, winning 16-13.
It would be an understatement to say the Cavaliers need to play as hard against the Blue Devils as they did against James Madison. Duke's only loss came against No. 6 Maryland, 18-19, and in every other game they have scored 10 goals or more, demonstrating their dangerous ability to score early in games and continue to do so throughout the game. Last season, the Blue Devils reached the semi-finals of the national tournament before losing by only one goal to the eventual champion, Northwestern. Virginia's performance against James Madison, however, did look promising.
"We picked up more ground balls than we have in the last few games, so I think that just working hard helped the ball come our way a little more often," Myers said. "[But] Duke's a great team, and they didn't have a game mid-week this week, so they've had a lot of days to prepare for us, and they're always a very well-coached team. So we're going to have our hands full for sure."
The last time the Cavaliers lost to the Blue Devils was in the 2005 season. Nevertheless, Virginia does lead in the all-time series with a record of 14-5, boasting a better record against Duke than any other women's lacrosse program.
There are several attackers Virginia will need to contain, mainly junior attacker Caroline Cryer, who leads the Blue Devils with 31 goals, seven assists, 25 draw controls, and 15 ground balls, as well as senior attacker Kristen Waaqbo and sophomore midfielder Carolyn Davis, each of whom has 18 goals for the season.
"We're definitely going to have to stop Duke's fast break," said senior defenseman Jessy Morgan. "They're a really strong offensive team with a lot of weapons, so we're going to have to stop the one on one and basically just tighten up our team defense."
Similar to the strategy against James Madison, the Cavaliers are also going to have to win draws and pick up ground balls simply to keep control of the ball.
"We need to make sure that we try to limit their touches," Myers said. "Probably the best way of beating Duke is to make sure that we have the ball the majority of the time, so we need to make sure that we're attacking through fast breaking as well as through a set pace on offense and pick our best opportunity to go on goal."
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