Duke Answers UVA Rally, Wins on Road
from press release
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- With 22:11 to play in
the second half, Virginia erased a three-goal Duke lead and tied
the game at six-all, but the Blue Devils did not lose their
composure and used a 5-2 run to secure a hard-fought 11-8 victory
over the Cavaliers Saturday afternoon at Klockner
Stadium.
Duke has now won six straight games, including five victories over
ranked opponents, to move to 9-1 (2-1 ACC) on the year, while
Virginia falls to 5-4 (0-3 ACC) with the loss. Duke junior Kat
Thomas led all players with four goals and junior Kim Wenger and
senior Christie Kaestner both chipped in two goals and an assist to
pace the Blue Devil
offense.
"I'm really proud of our team," head coach Kerstin Kimel said. "We
did a great job battling for 60 minutes today. Anytime you're on
the road in the ACC and win the game, that's great. There were
parts of our game that we didn't execute as well today, but given
that, we're still excited to walk out of here with a win and get
back to work on Monday. "
Virginia looked to limit Duke's possession by slowing down the pace
of play, but the Blue Devils still jumped out to a 3-0 advantage to
start the game. Senior Virginia Crotty kicked things off for Duke,
registering the first two goals of the game before Thomas made it
3-0 with 21:13 to play in the opening period.
"We anticipated that they would try and play a little slower,"
added Kimel. "We had some different defenses that we were able to
utilize and disrupt their flow and make them do things they didn't
want to do. But [the pace of the game] disrupted our ability to
substitute because there were long periods where we didn't have the
ball."
The Cavaliers got on the board seven minutes later to bring the
score to 3-1 and looked to cut the Devil lead to one on a free
position shot two minutes later, but Duke goaltender Mollie
Mackler, who finished the day with five stops, came up with the
save.
Goals from Thomas and Kaestner pushed the Duke lead to 5-1, but UVa
answered with back-to-back goals in 40 seconds. With 6:06 to go,
freshman Molly Quirke found Wenger for the score and the Blue
Devils headed into halftime with a 6-3 advantage.
However, the opening eight minutes of the second half saw Duke's
three-goal lead evaporate as Virginia was able to tie the game at
six-all on two scores from Josie Owen and a goal from Julie
Gardner. Despite the shift in momentum, the Blue Devils failed to
panic and ,following a timeout, answered a minute later to take a
7-6 lead on Thomas' third goal of the game.
"[The timeout] was an opportunity to regain our composure and
refocus on our game plan," said Kimel. "A lot of emphasis for us in
the second half was winning the draw. We felt that if we had the
ball, we would be successful in generating our offense, but we
needed to win the draw. After that timeout, the kids responded
really well."
Five minutes later, freshman Taylor Virden found the back of the
cage for her fourth goal this season and Duke capped a 3-0 run 38
seconds later. Mackler made a key save, then the Duke goalie
connected with Thomas at midfield, igniting a fast break that ended
with a wide-open Kaestner goal.
Virginia cut into the Duke lead with 12:46 to play, but Duke was
able to keep the clock moving and answered with 6:37 left on
another Thomas score, her team-leading 28th of the year. Wenger
gave Duke a four-goal margin less than a minute later and Virginia
could only notch one final goal over the last five minutes.
For the game, Duke led in shots, 24-17, and draw controls, 11-10,
as the Blue Devils committed a season-low nine turnovers in the
contest.
Virginia was led by Josie Owens with three goals and Charlie
Finnigan with two goals and two assists.
The Blue Devils will face another tough road test next weekend as
Duke heads to Northwestern for a non-conference bout. Opening draw
is slated for 2 p.m. (EST).
