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Thursday, November 5
Charlottesville, VA
11:00 AM
Duke University
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Virginia
Duke Falls to Cavaliers in ACC Quarterfinals
11/5/2015 1:21:00 PM | Field Hockey
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The fourth-ranked Blue Devils fell 5-1 to No. 5 Virginia Thursday in the ACC Championship quarterfinals at the Cavaliers' University Hall Turf Field.
Duke trailed 2-0 at halftime but saw Virginia double its lead early in the second period. Despite a late penalty corner goal from sophomore Alexa Mackintire, the deficit proved too much to overcome, dropping the squad to 12-6 on the season. The Blue Devils will now await the NCAA Tournament selections, which will be announced Sunday at 10 p.m. on NCAA.com.
Much like the teams' regular season meeting in September, Virginia came out the aggressor on the offensive end. The Cavaliers drew two penalty corners and recorded four shots inside the first three minutes before forward Greta Ell put away a rebound to put the home squad ahead early.
Virginia made it 2-0 a short while later on another second-chance opportunity, with Lucy Hyams capitalizing. The Blue Devils responded by earning a penalty corner on their next possession, but saw a hard shot from junior Heather Morris get turned away by Rebecca Holden in the Cavaliers' cage.
Duke generated its best scoring chance with fewer than 10 minutes remaining, when sophomore forward Ashley Kristen trapped a ball in the midfield and worked her way around a pair of Virginia defenders to create a one-on-one situation near the front of the cage. Holden came out to make the save, though, keeping the margin at two heading into the intermission.
The Cavaliers doubled their lead just over four minutes into the second half, as Riley Tata finished a corner play at the back post and Tara Vittese fired a reverse from the top of the circle.
“I'm just really surprised that we didn't expect an attacking surge, right from the start,” said head coach Pam Bustin. “It's a team that we know and that's the way they play – they depend on their attack. So as a team that takes a lot of pride in its defense and had a goal for extenuating our attack, I was surprised. That was extremely disappointing … We think we made the changes at halftime, only to have the same thing happen at the start of the second half. It's something that we need to look into ourselves about and discover what was going on so we don't let that happen again.”
Hyams registered her second of the day on an unassisted tally in the 49th minute to push the score to 5-0. Mackintire got the Blue Devils on the board at the 67:13 mark, tapping in a shot at the back post on a Duke corner. The goal marked her fourth of the season.
Duke earned a final corner just before the end of regulation and logged three shots but was unable to break through.
Virginia rounded out the contest with a 22-15 advantage in shots, while shots on goal were closer at 11-9 in the home team's favor. The Cavaliers also led in penalty corners, 7-5.
Redshirt senior goalkeeper Lauren Blazing totaled four saves and sophomore back Alyssa Chillano made two defensive saves. Holden had eight stops for Virginia on the other end.
The Cavaliers (14-4) advance to Friday's tournament semifinals, where they will face top-seeded Syracuse at 1 p.m.
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