Blue Devils hand Cavs 1st loss of season

In Durham, N.C., dreams of an undefeated season came to a crashing halt at Duke on Saturday after the top-ranked Virginia men’s lacrosse team was unable to mount yet another comeback.

After avoiding disaster in several recent games with thrilling comebacks, the Cavaliers gave up nine second-half goals and fell 15-10 to the eighth-ranked Blue Devils in front of a crowd of 3,211 at Koskinen Stadium. It marked the sixth straight loss for Virginia against Duke dating back to the 2005 season.

The loss could be costly — Virginia drops to 11-1 overall and finishes 2-1 in the ACC. Duke, also 2-1 in league play, improved to 9-3 overall. Maryland, which lost to UVa and upended Duke and UNC, also finished 2-1.

Based on the tiebreaker policy employed by the ACC (which is goals allowed in the contests played among the tied teams), Virginia will be slotted as the No. 3 seed in the league’s tournament.

That will earn Virginia another date with Duke, the second seed, as Maryland earned the top spot. The Terps allowed just 18 goals in the round-robin scenario. Duke allowed 21 and Virginia, after giving up 15 to the Blue Devils, finished with 24 allowed.

The Cavaliers kept things close early as they tied the contest at 2 in the first quarter on a goal by Danny Glading, but the Blue Devils took a 6-3 halftime lead as they scored four of the final five goals of the half.

Duke kept the pressure on Virginia’s defense early in the second half, scoring three unanswered goals.

As has been par for the course of late, Virginia answered in a matter of 72 seconds.

After Glading scored a pair of goals, Mike Thompson found the net with 6:33 left in the third period.

Clinging to a 9-6 lead, Duke squashed any threat Virginia had of a rally with five straight goals during a span that crept into the fourth quarter.

For the game, UVa out-shot Duke 43-28, but the Cavaliers’ erratic shooting forced Blue Devil goalie Rob Schroeder to make just 13 saves.

Glading paced the Cavaliers with four goals. Steele Stanwick added three. Max Quinzani had four goals and Justin Turri scored three for Duke, while Zach Howell and Mike Catalino added two each. Ned Crotty had two goals and six assists.

Steve Schoeffel, a former Covenant standout, had an assist for Duke.

Virginia will play Saturday at noon against Dartmouth at Klockner Stadium before heading to the ACC tournament.