No. 3 Duke Powers Past No. 2 Virginia, 18-12

Sunday, April 14

Durham, N.C.

2 p.m.

Duke University

11-3

Virginia

10-2

Virginia

Duke University

Photo by: Duke Athletics

No. 3 Duke Powers Past No. 2 Virginia, 18-12

4/14/2024 7:05:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

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DURHAM – Duke's attack trio of Josh Zawada, Brennan O'Neill and Dyson Williams combined for 12 goals and rookie goaltender Patrick Jameison made 13 saves to lead the third-ranked Blue Devils to a thrilling 18-12 win over No. 2 Virginia in men's lacrosse action at a sold-out Koskinen Stadium Sunday afternoon.

Zawada finished the afternoon with a game-high five goals and an assist, while O'Neill contributed four goals and an assist. Williams finished with three tallies as Duke improved to 11-3 overall and 1-2 in conference play. Virginia is 10-2 and 1-1.

How it Happened

The opening quarter featured 10 goals overall with Duke leading 7-3 at the first break. The Cavaliers notched the first of the game before Duke scored four of the next five for a 4-2 lead the Blue Devils never surrendered.
Williams, freshman Benn Johnston, Zawada and O'Neill had the four goals in a span of 5:27. Virginia made it a one-goal game, 4-3, at the 4:38 mark, but Duke capped the quarter with three goals in 1:36 for the four-goal advantage.
Virginia, led by three points from Connor Shellenberger, outscored Duke 4-3 in the second quarter to head into the locker room trailing the Blue Devils 10-7. Shellenberger finished his day with a goal and three assists.
Duke came out of halftime and scored the first three goals of the third quarter to take its largest lead of the game at 12-7. Junior Andrew McAdorey started the 3-0 spurt and Williams and Zawada tacked on two more before Griffin Schutz stopped Virginia's 15-minute scoring.
Jack Boyden and Payton Cormier added tallies in the final five minutes to bring the Cavaliers within three, 13-10, with one quarter remaining. Cromer led all Virginia scorers with three goals.
The fourth quarter was all Blue Devils as Duke scored the quarter's first four goals in just 3:08 to take a 17-10 lead. Four different players scored in the run, which included goals six seconds apart and three in just 35 seconds. The bench erupted on the third goal from faceoff specialist Jake Naso and McAdorey closed the run with his second of the day and 20th of the season. Naso put the finishing touch on the contest with a second goal off the faceoff win.
On the defensive end, Duke held Virginia to seven shots in the final quarter and forced five turnovers. The Cavaliers had 15 turnovers on the day, including 10 in the second half.
Naso went 8-of-17 at the dot, picked up six ground balls and added two goals. Veteran defenseman Kenny Brower was outstanding with four caused turnovers and a ground ball while matching up against Shellenberger.
Virginia split goaltending duties with Matthew Nunes making zero saves in 15 minutes of action. Kyle Morris had five saves in the final three quarters.

Notes

Duke has won 19 straight regular season games against Virginia (2005-2024) and is 24-2 against the Cavaliers since 2005. Head coach John Danowski is 23-2 against UVA at Duke and 26-4 all-time against the Cavaliers.
The 12 goals scored by Virginia are the fewest this season. The Cavaliers entered the game averaging 15.18 goals per game. Virginia shot just 26.7 percent making it the 10th Duke opponent to shoot under 30 percent for a game this season. The 26.7 percent is the second lowest percentage this season for the Cavaliers.
Duke's 18 goals are the most allowed by a Virginia team since it gave up 18 to Maryland in the 2022 NCAA Quarterfinal game, May 22, 2022.
Josh Zawada registered a season-high five goals – his fifth hat trick of the season and the 24th of his career. His six points mark his seventh game in 2024 with at least five points and the 25th of his career. He has 145 goals and 128 assists for 273 career points.
Brennan O'Neill registered his eighth hat trick of the season and the 37th of his career. He has scored five-plus points in nine games this year and 30 time over his four seasons. He has 30 points in five career games against Virginia (19g, 11a).
O'Neill pushes his career points total to 290 for sole possession of fourth place in the Duke record book. He has 195 career goals, fourth at Duke, and 95 career assists – tied for ninth in Blue Devil lore.
Dyson Williams notched his 10th hat trick in 14 games this year and the 40th of his time as a Blue Devil. Williams is fifth in Duke history with 194 career goals – leaving him six away from the 200 mark. He tallied his nation's best ninth extra-man goal to give him 20 for his career.
Jake Naso won eight faceoffs to give him 972 for his career. His six ground balls pushed his total to 543 to rank eighth in NCAA Division I history. He is seven away from the No. 7 spot and 18 from No. 6.
Duke scored 18 goals on 42 shots taken for a 42.9 shooting percentage – the highest in an ACC game this season and the fifth highest of the year. Virginia entered the game holding opponents to just 25 percent.
Defensively, Duke held Virginia's talented attack unit to nine points. The trio entered the afternoon averaging 13.55 points per game. The 15:21 scoring drought for Virginia marked the ninth time Duke has held an opponent without a goal for at least 15 minutes.
Kenny Brower moves to fourth at Duke in career caused turnovers with 70.

Up Next

Duke has a bye week before traveling down Tobacco Road to take on North Carolina April 27 at 12 p.m., on ACC Network.

Quotes
John Danowski on the crowd

"The crowds here in Durham have been absolutely fabulous. Two sellouts and in the past two weeks people have really rallied behind this team. It was alumni weekend and it's very gratifying to have some success on alumni weekend."

Danowski on Jake Naso

"I was incredibly impressed with his character, his courage to go back. I spoke to the doctor and he said he wasn't going to reinjure it. We have great sports medicine here at Duke. We have orthopaedic surgeons right on the sideline and they took care of him and Joe Ferraro, our athletic trainer, wrapped him. Then he goes and scores two goals. I said listen 'If I knew if that's what it would take I would have kicked you in the ankle every week.'"

Danowski on the matchup against Virginia

"This week we knew the game was going to be up and down. The Virginia game is always like that. It's transition. It's goals off the faceoff. It's really a very athletic event so we practiced for that all week. Certainly we were able to score a bunch in transition. It's a really fun way to play."

Danowski on Patrick Jameison

"When you're a freshman and you come from high school and then you're playing in the [JMA Wireless] Dome and you're playing in front of 3,500 people against Notre Dame and then you're playing Virginia – it's not easy. He's shown great resiliency. His learning curve is really steep. He's very steady. He was able to shake off last week, which I don't think was his best performance. He played much better this week."

Danowski on the off week

"We love to teach. There is no pressure to prepare for an opponent next week. We'll do that the week after. We can get back to teaching, back to taking a look at what aren't we good at, what do we need to get better. Whether it's as a group or individually, we can really dial in on that. And we have to heal up too.

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