No. 7 UVa Concludes ACC Play at No. 10 Duke on Saturday

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia Cavaliers (8-3, 1-1 ACC) moved up this week to the No. 7 spot in the USILA coaches poll and No. 6 in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse media poll after an overtime victory against the North Carolina Tar Heels on April 2. The win averted the program’s first three-game losing streak since 2004. UVa is back in action on Saturday when it travels to Durham, N.C., to face the Duke Blue Devils (9-4, 2-0 ACC) inside Koshinen Stadium. Faceoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. Duke is ranked No. 10 in the coaches poll and No. 9 in the media poll. Live stats are available at VirginiaSports.com.

There will be a live radio broadcast in the Charlottesville area on WINA 1070 AM, which will be simulcast as an audio webcast on VirginiaSports.com through Virginia Sports Online Radio. John Freeman will bring the play-by-play and Doug Tarring will provide the analysis. ESPNU will televise the game live with Anish Shroff calling the play-by-play and Stephen McElduff providing analysis.

Saturday marks the 74th all-time meeting between the Cavaliers and the Blue Devils, a series the Cavaliers own a 49-24 advantage in since 1938. The 49 victories equal the most UVa has against any opponent in program history, but the Blue Devils have won nine of the last 10 meetings, including the last meeting in the 2010 NCAA semifinal, 14-13. Virginia’s senior class is 53-12 during their time in Charlottesville, but six of those 12 setbacks have come to Duke.

Virginia head coach Dom Starsia brings 324 career victories into the contest, needing three more triumphs to pass Jack Emmer (326) for most victories by a head coach while at a NCAA Division I school.

Steele Stanwick leads UVa with 44 points and 21 assists, while scoring 23 goals. Chris Bocklet is tops on the team with 27 goals and has 30 points. Bocklet currently leads the nation with his active consecutive game goal streak, tallying at least one score in his past 29 contests. Chris LaPierre leads the team with 65 ground balls through the first 11 games, which bests Adam Ghitelman’s 2010 team-best of 62 in 18 games.

Ghitelman has 45 career wins in the cage and is in a tie with Cornell’s Matt McMonagle (2004-07) for No. 5 all-time at the NCAA Division I level. Ghitelman is saving 55.9 percent of shots against him and registering a 9.25 goals against average this season.

Duke head coach John Danowski is in this fifth season at Duke and returns 29 letterwinners and six starters off of last season’s NCAA title team that went 16-4. Zach Howell leads Duke with 32 goals and 43 total points. Jordan Wolf has a team-high 13 assists to go with his 20 goals. Christian Walsh and Robert Rotanz round out the Blue Devils’ top scorers with 14 goals each. Dan Wigrizer has 11 starts in the cage for Duke and is saving 54.2 percent of the shots against him and posting a 9.52 goals against average.

Following the game the ACC will release the seeding for the ACC Tournament, which runs April 22-24 in Durham, N.C.