Cavaliers come up short in overtime

DURHAM, N.C. — Virginia’s season is over.
The No. 10 UVa women’s lacrosse team’s late heroics weren’t enough to overcome No. 4 Duke on the road in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. The Cavaliers fell 15-13 in overtime to the Blue Devils.
The Cavaliers trailed by as many as four goals midway through the second half, before scoring eight of the final 10 goals in regulation to force overtime. Senior All-American Ashley McCulloch had three points in the run, while junior Brittany Kalkstein caused a turnover with 3:15 remaining and set up senior All-American Blair Weymouth to cap off the streak with a free-position goal with 2:34 remaining in regulation.
Duke won the opening draw control in overtime and controlled the possession, before Lindsay Gilbride slipped a shot into the next 2:22 into play. The Blue Devils then scored on an open net with five seconds remaining to secure the two-goal victory.
McCulloch led the Cavaliers with four goals and three assists, while freshman Julie Gardner completed her second hat trick of the season.
Weymouth had two goals and an
assist, while Kaitlin Duff had a goal and two assists. Kalkstein contributed a goal and an assist, while Whit Hagerman and senior All-American Jenny Hauser rounded out the scoring with a goal apiece.
Kalkstein won five draw controls to break her own single season record in the category, collecting 73 this year and currently sits five shy of the program’s career mark. In goal, redshirt sophomore Lauren Benner scooped up a career-high five ground balls and stopped six shots.
For Duke, Caroline Cryer and Gilbride led the way with six points each, on four goals and two assists.
The Blue Devils got the scoring started quickly, scoring 22 seconds into the contest, but the Cavaliers
rallied to find the back of the net at 28:14, on an unassisted goal from Weymouth.
The contest remained heated throughout, with Duke converting a free position shot before McCulloch found Gardner, who fired a shot into the net, giving McCulloch her 200th career point with the assist.
Duke had an answer for the goal just 49 seconds later, but two-straight scores from Virginia — the first from Gardner, assisted by Kalkstein, and the second, a free-position goal from McCulloch — gave the Cavaliers their first lead of the game, at 20:29.
The run was halted when Cryer flung a shot past Benner at 18:57, but McCulloch dished out her second assist of the contest, this time to Kalkstein to push Virginia ahead again, at 13:02.
The lead was the last the Cavaliers would see though, as the Blue Devils strung together four-unanswered goals to take an 8-5 lead into the intermission.
Virginia looked to get back on track at the beginning of the second
half, with McCulloch firing an assisted goal — from Duff — into the net just 27 seconds into play, before a fluke play — in which Duke’s own defender knocked down a pass from Hauser into its own goal, crediting Hauser with the score - pulled Virginia within one, at 8-7, with 24:08 on the clock.
The efforts weren’t enough to push Duke away, as the Blue Devils scored three straight goals to extend their lead to four, at 11-7, with 17:44 to play.
McCulloch stepped up in the next minute, scoring a goal from Weymouth before dishing a pass to Gardner at 15:29 to pull Virginia within two. The Blue Devils added another unassisted tally at 12:56, but back-to-back goals from the Cavaliers cut Duke’s lead to one, at 11-12 with 11:31 to play.
Another goal from the Blue Devils with 9:42 on the clock maintained the home team’s edge, but Virginia worked to even the score on free position goals, the first from Hagerman, and the game-tying score by Weymouth at 2:34, sending the game into overtime.