The Cavalier Daily
Serving the University Community Since 1890

In overtime, and with everything on the line, men’s lacrosse falls to No. 9 Duke

Virginia’s rough season would have peaked with a win, but it ended with the loss

McCabe Millon wrestles with two Duke defenders.
McCabe Millon wrestles with two Duke defenders.

Virginia grappled to within inches.

Of binning the most baffling losing streak in college lacrosse. Of nabbing a postseason berth. Of winning a game on a restless Saturday in which the hits thudded and the bleachers rattled and the result left detritus — a snapped stick lying on the grass, an expletive roared again and again into the air.

The ball settled a foot away from the goal in overtime. It was buried beneath Duke goalie Patrick Jameison. He basically sat on it, his descending underside catching the bouncing shot of Virginia senior midfielder Griffin Schutz. One Virginia player leaped halfway into the air, thinking the shot had wriggled in.

It had not. 

The game continued, and just over a minute later so did the streak. Duke sophomore midfielder Benn Johnson scored with 27 seconds left in overtime to give the No. 9 Blue Devils (11-4, 2-2 ACC) a 10-9 overtime victory over the Cavaliers (6-8, 0-4 ACC) at Klöckner Stadium in this de facto ACC Tournament play-in game. 

Virginia needed to win the game to extend its season. It knew that coming in.

“There is no more tomorrow,” Coach Lars Tiffany said in his media availability this week. “It’s got to happen now. So I want to make sure they understand that desperation. Every time there’s that loose ball, that’s got to be the last ball on Planet Earth. We need to secure that ball.”

Time after time, Virginia did. It outmuscled one of the country’s most athletic, most physical teams. Never mind that the Cavaliers have seemed, this season, to have lost their identity as ground-ball vampires. They dominated the ground-ball battle 46-27.

“We showed that we’re about as tough a team as there is in the country today,” Tiffany said. 

That included recovering from a stumbling start. Duke mauled its hosts in the first two minutes, winning three faceoffs on three faceoff violations and scoring immediately after each. It was 3-0 before the ball ever nestled in a Virginia stick.

It was an inexplicable start. That’s the word to describe this entire series. Since 2004, Virginia has won four national titles. It has not beaten Duke in the regular season.

There have been other one-goal games — 2023, 2010, 2007 — and one other overtime game, in 2021. But otherwise this has been a one-sided tale of domination. It only took Virginia’s worst season in over two decades, by winning percentage, to almost snap the streak.

After that early deficit, Virginia recovered.

“We just buckled back down,” senior defenseman George Fulton said. “I’d say it was just a couple unfortunate plays.”

Virginia worked back into the game, reaching within 4-3 late in the first quarter and trailing 7-5 at halftime. The Cavaliers held Duke scoreless for 28:35 of game time, a stretch that bridged the second and fourth quarters. They knotted the game at 7-7 deep in the third quarter.

A minute later, they had the ball again, senior attackman Thomas Mencke stationed behind the goal with the ball. The crowd started murmuring, and Mencke spared a glance at the shot clock. Six seconds. He wheeled around the cage, and then he whipped in a backhander from an outrageous angle, triggering an explosion in the crowd and sending him sprinting away toward half field in celebration. 

Mencke supplied two goals on the day, second only to junior attackman Truitt Sunderland’s three goals. Schutz and sophomore attackman McCabe Millon added three assists each, though they shot a combined 2-22.

Virginia had been here, in this position, all of the conference slate. Against a good team. Somewhere late in the game. Close. Even leading.

Then, well, it all unravels before the end.

“I’m the jockey whipping that horse,” Tiffany said earlier this week. “We gotta keep going. We gotta keep running until this thing’s over, 60 or 60-plus minutes.”

Virginia, for the first time in conference play, reached 60. It weathered Duke’s last opportunity of regulation, waiting as Duke senior midfielder Andrew McAdorey walked a small circle near midfield, draining time as the stands banged. Tiffany glanced left at the clock, hat backward on his head. Nothing came of the opportunity

Sixty-plus? Virginia made it that far, too, despite the loss. It never stopped going.

“I don’t think we would change a thing, unfortunately,” Tiffany said.

But things fell the wrong way. The ball didn’t wriggle under Jameison’s bum. Senior defenseman Ben Wayer got stripped at half field, Duke sprung out the other way, Johnson scored. The game ended, and the stadium felt less like a quietly deflating balloon than like a released helium balloon, making that noisy and wounded scream as it deflates. 

The energy was so tangible all day. These were people living this game, not watching it, even deep in a horrible season.

Schroter kept flashing back to Virginia’s game last season against Johns Hopkins, to a rowdy environment and a huge game and all that noise and emotion.

“Unfortunately, it wasn't the same outcome,” Schroter said.

Sophomore faceoff man Andrew Greenspan — who went 4-9 overall, a complement to sophomore Henry Metz’s 7-12 day — won the opening faceoff in overtime. He steamed right down the middle, toward the end of that losing streak, that postseason berth, that win. But he had his shot blocked.

It was one near miss among others. But Tiffany thought this was his team’s best performance of the season.

“I really do,” he said. “I think we did play our best lacrosse today.” 

It took them within inches.

Local Savings

Comments

Puzzles
Hoos Spelling
Latest Video

Latest Podcast

Indieheads is one of many Contracted Independent Organizations at the University dedicated to music, though it stands out to students for many reasons. Indieheads President Brian Tafazoli describes his experience and involvement in Indieheads over the years, as well as the impact that the organization has had on his personal and musical development.