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CHAPEL HILL, NCAlthough the calendar says it’s still April, this is the point in the season where teams begin to find out what kind of season they’ll ultimately have. Coaches and players all say it’s what happens in May that counts. As Virginia prepares for the next phase of its season with a match-up against Duke Friday night in the semifinals of the ACC Championship, the focus becomes a little clearer.
“We’re getting ready to enter the part of the season where it’s one and done and you’ve got to be willing to lay everything on the line,” said senior attackman Danny Glading.
The Cavaliers are 13-1 and ranked No. 1 entering the clash with the Blue Devils. Duke has had the upper hand in the recent history of the series, defeating Virginia six straight times going back to 2005. The Cavalier seniors have never beaten the Blue Devils. Duke is 10-3 overall this season and handed Virginia its only defeat of the season, 15-10 two weeks ago in Durham. As a result this is a game that the Cavaliers look forward to.
“I think we’re pretty privileged to have a second chance, everyone feels that way,” said midfielder Max Pomper.
“Playing Duke adds some incentive but it also adds a lot of focus, which I think is key,” added Glading. “We’re really been able to work on what we needed to this week and we’re going to be ready to play our best lacrosse on Friday night.”
In the first meeting between the two teams, Duke used a 7-1 run to take a one-goal lead out to a 9-3 advantage early in the second half. The Blue Devils used exceptional shooting throughout the day to gain its sixth straight win over the Cavaliers; they scored 15 goals on just 28 shots. Duke also won the faceoff battle, especially in the second half.
“We need to be better disciplined in the defensive end,” said Starsia. “We gave them some goals that even though they’re a fast team and an athletic team, if we had just been a little bit better disciplined in our patterns then I think that we could have prevented a couple of those. We clearly need to do that. The obvious thing of getting some saves and winning some faceoffs is still going to be there.”
While the defense gave up a season-high 15 goals to Duke, the offense was held to a season-low 10 goals. With offensive standouts such as Garrett Billings, Brian Carroll and Shamel Bratton, the Cavaliers don’t lack for goal scoring capability. In the first meeting they took 43 shots but few found the mark.
“We talked about it before the last game that, since this is an athletic defensive team, we needed to work hard to get good opportunities and then not settle for mediocre shots,” Starsia said. “We needed to be able to capitalize on those opportunities and make a goalie that hadn’t stood on his head all year, not let him be a factor in the game and we didn’t really do that in the offensive end.
“We need to be aggressive, but patient in the offensive end. Work for good shots, don’t settle for mediocre ones and can those opportunities when we get them.”
As for when the losing streak will come to an end, Starsia is as interested as anybody.
“We’ll beat them when we deserve to beat them, that’s essentially what it is,” he said. “We’re just going to have to play better; we certainly can play a lot better than we did the last time. But that doesn’t happen just because we’ve got another chance. We’re going to have to make it happen on the field. We’re going to have to execute in a much more disciplined manner than we did the last time. This is a very good Duke team that’s going to require our best effort in order for us to get this one.”
Faceoff at UNC’s Kenan Stadium is set for approximately 7:30 p.m. Top-seeded Maryland and No. 4 seed North Carolina clash in the first game at 5 p.m. Both games are available via webcast at ACCSelect.com.