Duke Falls To Virginia, 5-2, In First Round Of ACC Championships

Thursday, November 6

Durham, N.C.

1:00 p.m.

Duke University

Virginia (Quarterfinals)

Duke Falls To Virginia, 5-2, In First Round Of ACC Championships

11/6/2008 12:00:00 AM | Field Hockey

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. ? The fifth-seeded Duke field hockey team dropped its opening-round game in the 2008 ACC Championships Thursday afternoon, falling to the fourth seed Virginia, 5-2, at Jack Katz Stadium.

The Blue Devils had their work cut out for them after falling to UVA, 4-3, on Saturday here and earning the rematch. Today's contest started out similarly to last time, as Virginia notched three first-half goals and forced Duke to play from behind for the duration of the game.

“[Mistakes happened] on both ends of the field, and you can pretty much spread the blame around,” said head coach Beth Bozman. “Give credit to Virginia ? they capitalized on all of our mistakes. The difference was that we didn't finish when we got in our attacking end.”

“We need to improve going forward. This is a team game and we need to have a collective effort.”

Duke dropped to 14-5 on the season, while UVA improved to 13-7.

The Cavaliers found the scoring column just 2:12 into the game, a goal from Traci Ragukas off an assist from Paige Selenski to put UVA up 1-0. Duke evened the score 25:08 into the game, when senior Ashley Pultorak sent a rebound shot past the keeper into the bottom left corner of the cage after Laura Suchoski's initial shot was blocked.

But Virginia came right back, as Selenski put the Cavaliers up 2-1 at the 30:20 mark in the first half, a hard shot from the top off an assist from Michelle Vittese. Virginia got its third goal just three minutes later, when Vittese struck from the left side sending the ball into the top corner. The score remained 3-1 in favor of Virginia at the half, the same it was on Saturday.

The Cavaliers added to their lead after halftime, as Floor Vogels took a pass from Inge Kaars Sijpestei off a penalty corner to move the advantage to 4-1 after a yellow card was assessed on the Blue Devils, who were forced to play a man down. Amie Survilla brought Duke back within two on her 16th goal of the season at the 59:04 mark, firing home the shot off a penalty corner with the assist going to both Brooke Patterson and Marian Dickinson who started the play.

But Virginia answered again, with Ragukas' second goal of the game off another Selenski assist off a pass from the right side to bring the score to 5-2 with under nine minutes remaining, and the Blue Devils were unable to answer.

Virginia narrowly edged Duke in shots, 18-17, while Duke held the 9-4 advantage on penalty corners but could not convert them into scores. Amy Desjadon made eight saves between the pipes for the Cavaliers to preserve the lead. Stefanie Fee came away with two defensive saves for the Blue Devils.

The five goals is the most allowed by Duke this season.

After being eliminated from the ACC Tournament, Duke will await its NCAA Tournament fate on Tuesday's selection show. The Cavaliers will face top-seeded Maryland in tomorrow's 4 p.m second-round game, while Wake Forest, which defeated Boston College today, will face second-seeded North Carolina at 7 p.m. Thursday. Both games will be played at Jack Katz Stadium. The championship game is set for Sunday, Nov. 9 at 1 p.m.

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