Duke Repeats As ACC Men's Lacrosse Champion With 14-13 Victory Over Virginia

April 21, 2002

ACC Women's Lacrosse Championship - UNC 11, Maryland 10

Terrence Keaney scored the game-winning goal with 39 seconds remaining and Tournament MVP A.J. Kincel made 15 saves as second-seeded and 12th-ranked Duke captured the 2002 ACC Men's Lacrosse Tournament championship with a 14-13 win over top-seeded and number one-ranked Virginia in front of 4,106 fans at Koskinen Stadium in Durham, N.C.

The Blue Devils improve to 7-5 while the Cavaliers fall to 9-2. The ACC title for the Blue Devils is their second straight and third overall. Duke head coach Mike Pressler earns his third ACC Tournament crown, moving into a tie with Virginia coach Dom Starsia for the second-most league tournament championships. Dave Klarmann, who serves as a volunteer assistant coach for the Blue Devils, won five ACC Tournament titles.

Trailing 13-12 late in the fourth period, Keaney scored on an assist from Kevin Cassese to tie the game with 2:02 remaining. After Cassese won the ensuing face-off, the Blue Devils held possession until Keaney broke free from behind the goal and beat Virginia goalkeeper Tillman Johnson. Duke then won the face-off and maintained possession until turning the ball over with two seconds left. Virginia's desparation length-of-the-field shot was corralled by Kincel wide of the goal.

Virginia bolted out to a 4-1 lead in the opening seven minutes as Billy Glading tallied two goals. Back-to-back goals by Dan Doty and Jimmy Regan just 48 seconds apart pulled Duke within 4-3, and then the two squads traded goals in the final 40 seconds of the period including a short-handed tally by Duke's Taylor Wray with 15 seconds left to make the score 5-4 after one quarter.

After John Christmas found the back of the net for a two-goal Cavalier lead, Duke used a 3-1 spurt with Regan scoring twice to knot the game at 7-7 with less than a minute remaining in the half. Virginia responded as Joe Yevoli scored with just 17 seconds left to give the Cavaliers a one-goal halftime advantage.

Following a goal by Duke's Dan Chemotti that tied the game, Virginia received consecutive goals from Yevoli and Brenndan Mohler to push the Cavaliers ahead by two goals. The Blue Devils then put together a 4-0 run to claim a 12-10 lead at the 11:52 mark of the final period on Regan's fourth and final goal of the day. The Cavaliers then scored three straight goals as Christmas sandwiched goals around a tally by A.J. Shannon to put Virginia ahead, 13-12, with just under five minutes remaining.

Alex Lieske paced the Duke offense with three goals and three assists while Regan added a career-high five points on four goals and one assist. For Virginia, Chrismas logged three goals and one assist. The Cavaliers played the final 55:09 without All-America defender Mark Koontz, who left the game after reinjuring his knee less than five minutes into the contest.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
*A.J. Kincel (Duke), Terrence Keaney (Duke), Dan Hauber (Duke), Jimmy Regan (Duke), Alex Lieske (Duke), John Christmas (Virginia), Tillman Johnson (Virginia), A.J. Shannon (Virginia), Joe Yevoli (Virginia), Paul Spellman (North Carolina), Brian Carroll (Maryland) *Most Valuable Player

Score By Quarters Duke 4 3 4 3 - 14 Virginia 5 3 2 3 - 13

Shots Duke: 39 Virginia: 36

Saves Duke: 15 Virginia: 12

Ground Balls Duke 48 Virginia: 38

Face-Offs Duke: 18-29 Virginia: 11-29

Clears Duke: 19-28 Virginia: 29-32

EMO Duke: 1-2 Virginia: 1-3

SCORING (Goals-Assists) Duke: Alex Lieske 3-3, Jimmy Regan 4-1, Dan Chemotti 2-0, Terrence Keaney 2-0, Kevin Cassese 1-1, Kevin Brennan 0-2, Dan Doty 1-0, Taylor Wray 1-0, Ben Fenton 0-1 Virginia: John Christmas 3-1, A.J. Shannon 2-1, Joe Yevoli 2-1, Billy Glading 2-0, Chris Rotelli 1-1, Eric Leibowitz 1-0, Brenndan Mohler 1-0, Trey Whitty 1-0, Conor Gill 0-1, Nick Russo 0-1

Post Game Quotes

Duke head coach Mike Pressler: "We've had some big wins around here in my 12 years at Duke. Winning an ACC tournament title, especially repeating and doing it on your home field, is incredible. I can't remember a bigger win than this one. I said to the team one of the days this week, 'To win this thing, we'll have to give out 10 game balls,' and actually we're going to give out 11. We're going to give out [a game ball] to every senior. Eleven of our 14 goals came from the senior class. They scored three in a row and then we showed resiliency to make the play in the fourth quarter. Terrence [Keaney] makes a spectacular play and goes underneath. Nobody slides to him and he finishes in front of the goal. That's what we were talking about all week. You finish in front, good things will happen to you. What that does is put us right back in the national picture and the NCAA tournament hunt and we're right where we wanted to be back in March."

"We didn't play very well Friday night, but we had spectacular game by one player and that was the difference. This is nothing our guys didn't know. We've played with heart and emotion all year, but we haven't played with our heads. We had to bring our heads with our hearts. I've had no issue with our guys all year, playing hard and tough. This is one of the best bunches I've had that way, but what has let us down in some of our losses are some of our mistakes late in the game when the game is ready to be decided. Today, the difference was we were in the same situation again but we made some really smart plays, some defensive stops, and took some good shots. We were patient at the offensive end when it was 13-12 and Terrence ties it. We didn't go for the first shot. We went for the best shot."

Duke senior A.J. Kincel: "We had an opportunity to see what our team's made out of. Coming into this week we knew that we were in a tough spot, but with our coaching, our seniors, our captains, and our leadership we knew how to turn it around and pull it all together. All year we've shined at times and we've been great and we knew that if we kept working hard we'd be able to put it together this weekend and we did."

"I think our whole team rallies around each other so it's never one person. You never feel like you're out there on an island because we're such a close team. We would do anything for each other. Fortunately, we get that opportunity on the field."

Virginia head coach Dom Starsia: "First and foremost, I'd like to give credit to Duke. They made plays when they had to. We seemed to struggle to make plays throughout the day. I thought we were tentative almost from the beginning to the end. The goal they got to put them ahead at the end of the game was kind of indicative of where we were defensively. We just seemed a little out of sync, a little afraid to make a play at the end of the game. Our timing was just bad. It was a little uncharacteristic. I thought throughout the game that we were just going to snap out of it and start to play with more poise and patience, but we never really did. We were just a step out of sync the whole day."

Duke Repeats As ACC Men's Lacrosse Champion With 14-13 Victory Over Virginia

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