Blue Devils bounce Cavs

Much like its first meeting with Virginia, Duke didn’t take many shots Saturday night. But this time, the Blue Devils made those chances count.

Less than a month after playing Duke to a double overtime, scoreless tie in the regular season, Virginia fell 2-0, ending the Cavaliers’ season in the third round of the NCAA tournament.

“Our decisions weren’t really there tonight — we were taking shots that weren’t getting us in the place that we needed to be,” said Virginia’s Nikki Krzysik. “We were settling and we weren’t doing that little bit extra that we needed to do.”

Virginia couldn’t finish any of its 15 shots on the night, missing chance after chance against a solid Duke defense led by senior goalie Cassidy Powers’ four saves. Offensively, the Blue Devils’ first-team All-ACC performers led the way, with KayAnne Gummersall notching the first goal and junior Elisabeth Redmond knocking home the insurance goal.

Gummersall’s score came in the 16th minute when Duke midfielder Lorraine Quinn nabbed a ball from a Virginia defender on the right side just outside the box. She quickly crossed the ball to Gummersall, who chipped the ball past Virginia goalie Celeste Miles.

“I thought that first goal was against the run of play a little bit,” Swanson said. “You’ve got to be tough mentally to not let that affect you.”

In the 16 minutes leading up to Duke’s score, Virginia controlled much of the action, and had a pair of close calls with goals. On a blast from the Cavaliers’ left side, Duke defender Gretchen Miller kicked a ball out that slipped past Duke goalie Cassidy Powers from just outside the goal line with 31:10 left. The ball was inches away from being past the goal line. Two minutes before, another Virginia chance had come up short.

“I looked at the tape, and it was really hard to get a good gauge if it was over or not,” Swanson said. “That was a turning point there.”

The initial goal was a major momentum swing in the game, as Duke coach Robbie Church agreed that Virginia seemed to be in control of the match early on.

“That changed the complexion of the game, I think we were really chasing the game,” Church said. “I thought Virginia was really sharp early. That changed the whole momentum of the game.”

After Duke jumped up 1-0 on Gummersall’s goal, the Cavaliers’ next big chance came with 3:45 to play in the half, when a crossing shot by Kika Toulouse from the left side sailed wide right. It seemed to go that way all night, with Virginia being forced into less-than-desirable shots most of the match. Duke’s defense appeared to play even better than the scoreless tie on Oct. 30, relying less on Powers’ spectacular saves and more on trying to push the Cavaliers out and force bad shots.

“We went over our defensive shape in practice a lot this week and made some adjustments from the last game,” Redmond said. “I think they were much more dangerous in the first game.”

Duke’s defense has now held the Cavaliers scoreless for 180 minutes of gameplay. Virginia averages 2.32 goals per game. Down the stretch the Blue Devils have been particularly good, surrendering just three goals in their last seven games.

Even more impressive is that at the beginning of that stretch, Duke lost one of its top defenders, All-ACC freshman team honoree Ashley Rape, to a torn ACL during practice after the Florida State game on October 19. Church pointed to that as a turning point for the Blue Devils while calling the effort against Virginia the best played defensive effort of the season.

“Everybody knew losing Ashley that we all had to step up,” Church said. “We couldn’t replace her with just one person.”

Redmond’s goal in the 64th minute came on a blast from about 20 yards out after the junior swiped a ball near midfield and pushed it ahead. She then recovered a loose ball after a pass to Gummersall near the top of the box and let the shot rip.

Duke will face the UCLA-Southern California in the next round of the NCAA tournament.