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April 11, 2003
Charlottesville, Va. –
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Game 9
#6 Virginia vs. #12 Duke
April 12, 2003 * 2:30 pm
Koskinen Stadium * Durham, N.C.
Game Info
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The Records:
Virginia: 6-2/1-1
Duke: 7-4/0-2
The Rankings: (USILA/Inside Lacrosse)
Virginia: 6/5
Duke: 12/11
The Series vs. Duke:
Overall: 45-15
Away: 18-10
Current Streak: L1
Biggest UVa Win: 27, 1972 (29-2)
Biggest DU Win: 10, 1942 (13-3)
UVa Goals: 776
DU Goals: 468
Starsia (UVa) vs. DU: 12-5
Last Meeting:
Duke won 14-13 in last year’s ACC Tournament championship game
The Series vs. the Blue Devils
Virginia leads the all-time series with Duke by a 45-15 margin. The Cavaliers have defeated Duke more than any other team in school history.
The men in orange and blue have lost the last three games against Duke in Durham, including a 14-13 decision in the championship game of last year’s ACC Tournament. Overall, however, the Cavaliers have posted an 18-10 record on the Blue Devils’ home turf through the years. The Cavaliers’ 18 wins are tied for the second-most wins on an opponent’s home field. They have won 23 games at Washington & Lee and 18 at North Carolina.
This is the sixth anniversary of Virginia’s last win over Duke in Durham–a 17-14 win that was its sixth straight win in Durham.
The Cavaliers’ last three losses in Durham (1999, 2001, 2002) have been by a total of three goals, while their previous six wins there between 1989-97 were by an average of 5.0 goals.
Two of Virginia’s last four wins (since 1999) have been by one goal, while the other two were by five goals. The Cavaliers won last season’s regular season meeting 15-10 in Charlottesville.
The recent history of the series has been characterized by many close games. Going back to 1998, seven of the last nine games have been decided by one or two goals.
All three of Duke’s wins over Virginia since 1996 have been by one goal (1999, 2001, `02). Incidentally, all three games were in Durham.
It is interesting to note that Duke has done an excellent job of containing Virginia’s offense in recent years. The Cavaliers reached double figures in 34 of 35 meetings from 1962-98, but have scored 10+ in only four of the last seven. Virginia could run this streak to three straight games, its longest since an eight-game run from 1994-98.
The Blue Devils have been tough defensively against Virginia since 1998, holding the Cavaliers to an average of 10.1 goals per game. Duke has held UVa to 12 goals or less in eight of the last 10 games.
Similarly, Virginia has held the Duke offense in check, giving up fewer than 12 goals in nine of the last 10, including eight straight. The Blue Devils are averaging 9.7 goals in the last nine games since 1998, the highest average by an ACC team vs. UVa in that span.
The Blue Devils come into the game ranked 12th this week, the fourth straight time they’ve been ranked 10th or lower. They haven’t been bothered by the rankings, however, with two wins in the last three games.
ACC Tournament Up Next
This Saturday’s game is the final ACC regular season game before next week’s ACC Tournament hosted by UVa.
Maryland and North Carolina both completed league play with a 2-1 ACC record.
The Cavaliers enter Saturday’s game with a 1-1 league mark, while Duke is 0-2.
A Virginia win creates a three-way tie atop the standings. In this case, seeds 1-3 for the tournament would be determined by a blind draw at the league office Monday.
If Duke wins, the Cavaliers and Blue Devils would each finish tied in the standings, but Duke would get the higher seed by virtue of their win over UVa. North Carolina would be the top seed and Maryland second (again by virtue of UNC’s win earlier in the season).
Shooting Woes Lead to Dry Spell
One of the Cavaliers’ problems during their recent scoring drought has been subpar shooting.
In the last three games, where they’ve scored a total of 24 goals, they have shot under 20 percent every time. In this span they are shooting 17.7 percent (24×136).
Virginia won over North Carolina 10-7 last week despite shooting 19.6 percent (10×51). That ended a three-game losing streak when shooting below 20 percent. Curiously the last time before last weekend when UVa shot worse than 20 percent and won occurred in the 1999 national championship game vs. Syracuse.
Defense Remains Steady
While the Cavalier offense has struggled some recently, the defense has remained stellar. Virginia allows an average of 7.9 goals per game, despite playing the toughest schedule in the nation so far. The Cavaliers are 16th in the nation in defense.
Virginia has held every opponent except Syracuse to fewer than nine goals this season.
In fact, four of UVa’s eight opponents this season have scored their season-low total against UVa (Princeton, Towson, Johns Hopkins, North Carolina).
Duke’s season low is five goals vs. Georgetown.
The six-game streak of allowing fewer than 10 goals is the Cavaliers’ longest since an eight-game streak during the 2000 season.
Gotta Play the Full 60
One characteristic of Virginia’s two losses so far is its play in one fateful quarter–both in the first half.
Against Johns Hopkins, the Blue Jays jumped to an early 5-0 first quarter lead. After the fast start their offense went dormant, allowing the Cavaliers to claw their way back into the game. Despite being blanked for almost 34 minutes, Virginia managed to outscore the Blue Jays 5-2 in the third quarter to cut the lead to 7-6 early in the fourth.
The teams traded goals in the final eight minutes, and Virginia still had a chance to tie at the end but Matt Ward’s shot at the horn hit the side of the net.
After scoring the game’s first two goals vs. Maryland in the next game, the Cavaliers went scoreless for more than 33 minutes as the Terrapins used a seven-goal run to take a 7-2 lead late in the third period.
Once again the Cavaliers used a frantic late rally by scoring two quick goals in the final two minutes to pull within one. They had a chance to tie in the closing seconds but couldn’t get off a decent shot.
Giving up the big quarter has proven disastrous to the Cavaliers during the last four seasons. Since 2000 Virginia is 3-10 when allowing at least five goals in a quarter. Other than this season’s win over Syracuse (when the Orangemen scored five goals in the fourth quarter), Virginia has lost eight of nine going back to 2000.
Rotelli Reaches Century Mark
Senior midfielder Chris Rotelli notched a career-high four assists in the loss to Maryland two weeks ago. While the game’s outcome wasn’t gratifying, Rotelli did manage to achieve a bit of personal accomplishment–reaching the 100-point plateau for his career, the 31st player in school history to do so.
Rotelli is third in the ACC in scoring this season with an average of 3.25 points per game (26 in 8 games). He is one of two players (along with UNC’s Jed Prossner) to rank in the top five in the league in scoring, goals and assists. Rotelli is third in assists (1.4/g) and tied for fourth in goals (2.0/g).
Rotelli is currently 29th in school history in scoring. His imminent movement up the career scoring chart is shown below.
Player, years, points
25. Rob Falk, 1990-93, 111
26. Andy Kraus, 1987-89, `91, 107
27. Greg Traynor, 1992-95, 106
28. Henry “Punchy” Peterson, 1959-61, 104
29. Chris Rotelli, 2000-pres., 103
While we’re at it, we’ll also give you Rotelli’s place on UVa’s career goals chart. You can also see A.J. Shannon is closing in on the top 20.
Player, years, goals
14. Greg Traynor, 1992-95, 82
15. Conor Gill, 1999-2002, 77
16. Andy Kraus, 1987-89, `91, 75
17. Chris Rotelli, 2000-pres. & 2 others, 74
20. Randy Natoli, 1979-82, 73
21. A.J. Shannon, 2000-pres., 72
deVilliers Improves at Faceoff X
One of the big questions for the Cavaliers coming into the season centered on the play of faceoff man Jack deVilliers. He was the team’s primary man at the faceoff X last season, a tough assignment for a rookie.
He won less than 50 percent of his draws for the season (.478) but improved during the latter part of the campaign and won more than half in two of his last three games. In perhaps his best performance of the season he won 13 (career high at the time) of 24 attempts in the national semifinals vs. Syracuse.
The sophomore from Lutherville, Md., worked hard in the offseason and came back bigger and stronger and has given the squad a big lift with his play.
He was instrumental in the win over then #1 Syracuse last month, winning a career-high 19 of 32 draws (.594), including 11 of 17 in the second half as UVa came from three goals down to win 16-15.
He turned in one of the most amazing performances by a Cavalier in a long while in the loss to Maryland. He won 15 of 19 attempts (.789), by far the best percentage of his career.
deVilliers had a rough first quarter last week against North Carolina, losing six of seven attempts in the opening 15 minutes. From that point on he was almost invincible, winning 11 of 13 the rest of the way. In the second half he won eight of nine to help UVa erase a 5-all halftime tie and win 10-7.
deVilliers is 10th in the nation in winning percentage (.619) to help Virginia rank seventh as a team. All told he has won at least half his draws every game this season.
He has already won 104 faceoffs, just six away from his total all last season!
deVilliers leads the nation in total wins (104) and is second in attempts (168).
A look at his statistics on a game-by-game basis is below.
opp., Wins, Pct.
Drexel, 16 of 23, .696
Syracuse, 19 of 32, .594
Princeton, 11 of 18, .611
Notre Dame, 14 of 23, .609
Towson, 8 of 16, .500
J. Hopkins, 9 of 17, .529
Maryland, 15 of 19, .789
No. Carolina, 12 of 20, .600
Rookie Ward Reaches Double Digits
Freshman Matt Ward came to UVa with a reputation of being an explosive scorer. He hasn’t had the pressure to score a lot this season, but he is blending in well on the attack with sophomores John Christmas and Joe Yevoli.
Ward has scored 12 goals this season, fifth on the team. He is also the second-leading freshman in the ACC behind Maryland’s Joe Walters (22).
Ward has tallied 21 points which is also second among league rookies behind Walters (28).
Johnson Moves Up Saves List
Junior goalie Tillman Johnson is considered by many to be the top goalie in the nation. He was a preseason first-team All-American and is the only Division I goalie named to the list of candidates for the Tewaaraton Trophy, given annually to the top player in the nation.
He has been the starter throughout his career. Last season he was an honorable mention All-American after turning aside 173 shots, the most by a Cavalier netminder since 1996.
The junior from Annapolis, Md., has been steady during the season’s early stages while going up against some of the top teams in the nation–Virginia has faced the toughest schedule in the nation.
By his own account, he had his best performance of the season against Towson with a season-high 15 saves while allowing a season-low two goals. The 15 saves is tied for the fifth-highest total of his career (18 is his high).
He turned in another stellar performance in last week’s win over North Carolina and was named ACC Player of the Week.
Johnson made 14 saves, his second-highest total of the season, while holding the Tar Heels to just seven goals, their season low. He also led the team’s defensive players with seven ground balls.
Nine of his 14 saves came in the second half as the Cavaliers used a stout defense to break a 5-5 halftime tie en route to the win. Johnson and the Cavaliers limited North Carolina to just two goals in the final 30 minutes.
Two of Johnson’s four saves in the third quarter came early in the period with the score still tied at five and prevented the Tar Heels from taking the early momentum.
Once the Cavaliers grabbed the lead, they turned to Johnson to hold it and he came through. With Virginia holding a slim 8-6 lead he saved two Tar Heel one-on-one efforts in the final period to stop their threats at cutting the deficit. He recorded five saves in the final period, his fourth quarter high this season.
Since facing the potent Syracuse offense in the second game, he has allowed fewer than nine goals in the last six games. In that time he has a .630 save percentage and is averaging 11.3 saves per game.
As you can see from the chart below, Johnson is ninth in school history in career saves.
Player, years, saves
1. Rodney Rullman, 1972-75, 553
2. Deeley Nice, 1960-62, 498
3. Bo Moore, 1952-54, 494
4. Chris Sanderson, 1995-98, 493
5. Peter Sheehan, 1984-88, 491
6. Cam MacLachlan, 1975-78, 470
7. James Ireland, 1991-94, 458
8. Tom Groeninger, 1988-91, 455
9. Tillman Johnson, 2001-pres., 414
Hughes Shuts Down Syracuse’s Powell
Junior defenseman Brett Hughes has started throughout his career at UVa. His first two years he played in the shadow of 2002 ACC Player of the Year Mark Koontz, who like Hughes hails from Upper Arlington, Ohio.
But with Koontz graduated and off to a career on Wall Street, Hughes has assumed the role of defensive stopper. He got a taste of it late last season following Koontz’ season-ending knee injury, but this season the role is all his.
An outstanding athlete–Hughes was an all-state football player in Ohio–he will draw some of the top offensive players the nation has to offer this season.
His first big test of the season came against Syracuse at the Carrier Dome in the season’s second game.
By all accounts Hughes was one of the unsung heroes in UVa’s 16-15 win by holding the explosive Michael Powell to just two assists. The game was only the fourth of Powell’s career in which he failed to score a goal and the third-lowest point total of his career.
Hughes also contributed a big play on offense that proved to be a key in the one-goal win. With six seconds left in the third period he launched a 90-yard pass downfield for Joe Yevoli. Yevoli snared the ball one handed and fired the ball past a stunned Jay Pfeifer for a goal at the buzzer.
Hughes leads ACC close defensemen in ground balls with an average of 3.4 per game, tied for eighth overall.
Glading is Underrated Warrior
Senior midfielder Billy Glading is frequently overshadowed by classmates Chris Rotelli and A.J. Shannon, among others.
However it is interesting to note that of the team’s middies Glading spends more time on the field than anyone.
An extremely gifted athlete–he was a standout point guard in high school–Glading’s speed and athleticism enable him to be effective on both ends of the field.
Offensively he is an opportunistic scorer, who has connected on 33 percent of his shots in his career. This season he has found the back of the net eight times, third among the team’s middies.
He led the team for the first time with three goals in the win over Towson a month ago.
Defensively he is frequently the player the poles look to to carry the ball downfield on clears. He is also adept at checking the ball free and leads the team’s short stick middies with 21 ground balls.
Heffner Flourishes in New Role
Junior Zach Heffner spent his first two years at Virginia in a reserve role on defense. After a series of injuries to the defensive middies late last season, head coach Dom Starsia moved Heffner there to shore up the ranks. Heffner played in five of the last six games and seemed to add a spark.
This season he’s traded in his long pole for good. He has flourished as a wing man on faceoffs and in the defensive midfield where he can use his speed and athleticism to great effect. He’s the fastest player on the team according to Starsia (and holds several New York state high school track records).
He has gobbled up 43 ground balls and is second in the ACC with an average of 5.4 per game. He is ranked 14th in the nation in ground balls.
The junior from Averill Park, N.Y., led the team in GBs for the first time in the win over Syracuse when he snapped up eight, a career high.
He came back to lead the team again the next week with five vs. Princeton.
Heffner scored the first goal of his career on a nice back door cut vs. Notre Dame.
Christmas Leads Twice vs. Duke in `02
Attackman John Christmas was Virginia’s leading scorer in both games vs. Duke as a freshman last season.
In the regular season match-up he scored two goals and assisted on two others in UVa’s 15-10 win in Charlottesville.
Eight days later he scored three times and had an assist as the Blue Devils downed UVa in the title game of the ACC Tournament 14-13.
Several other current Cavaliers have turned in impressive performances vs. Duke during their careers, including A.J. Shannon who scored three times in last year’s regular season meeting and then had 2-and-1 in the ACC title game.
Joe Yevoli scored twice and had two assists in the regular season and 2-and-1 in the ACC finals.
Chris Rotelli scored a career-high four goals in the 2001 contest.
Faceoff Battle Could Be Key
The two teams come into this weekend’s contest among the best in the nation in winning faceoffs. The Cavaliers have won 60.1 percent of their draws this season and are ranked seventh in the nation.
Duke is 11th nationally with a winning percentage of 56.1 percent.
Virginia specialist Jack deVilliers is 10th in the country with a winning percentage of 61.9 percent. His 104 wins lead the nation.
Duke relys on the tandem of Kevin Cassese and Will MacDonald for the majority of its attempts. Cassese has won 59.1 percent so far this season, while MacDonald isn’t far behind at 57.1 percent.
Led by Cassese the Blue Devils have dominated on faceoffs vs. UVa recently. Duke has had the edge in the last three meetings and won two (2001 and last year’s ACC championship).
Since 1988 Virginia has won the faceoff battle on 11 occasions and won 10 times. The only loss occurred during the regular season meeting in 1999 when the faceoffs were nearly even–UVa won 12 of 23.
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