‘Cardiac Cavaliers’ Rally Again, Finally Beat Duke For Trip To National Championship
Posted on Saturday, May. 25, 2019, 4:22 pm
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By Scott Ratcliffe
Taking a page from the Virginia basketball team’s magical title run, the UVA men’s lacrosse team survived in overtime — in the Final Four — to beat ACC rival Duke, 13-12. Ian Laviano’s goal with 3:09 left in the second OT of Saturday’s NCAA semifinal in Philadelphia sent the Cavaliers to the national championship for the first time in eight years.
The win — UVA’s seventh straight — snaps an 11-game losing skid against the Blue Devils, who had taken 19 of the last 20 meetings in the series against the Cavaliers, including a five-goal victory in the regular-season matchup last month (which happens to be the last game UVA lost).
But Lars Tiffany’s third-seeded Wahoos (16-3) dug deep and turned it on when it mattered most Saturday after a sloppy start left them fighting and clawing to get back in it down the stretch.
The never-say-die ‘Hoos will now play for their first title since 2011 Monday against No. 5 Yale, the defending national champion. The Bulldogs (15-3) knocked off top-seeded Penn State in a shootout, 21-17, in Saturday’s second semifinal.
Down by four midway through the third quarter Saturday, Virginia started to chip away. Petey LaSalla, Matt Moore and Laviano each scored during a 3-0 spurt over the last 6:55, and the ‘Hoos headed to the fourth down by just one goal, 8-7.
The second-seeded Devils (13-5) answered back with a pair of goals in the opening 1:04 of the fourth quarter, and maintained a three-goal advantage, 11-8, as the game went under the 10-minute mark.
Junior midfielder Dox Aitken deflected one in off of Duke goalkeeper Turner Uppgren’s leg, then scored again 46 seconds later to cut it to one, 11-10, with 7:55 left in regulation.
The ‘Hoos couldn’t get the equalizer to go after firing off four shots over the next two minutes, and then it looked like Duke had delivered the dagger with just under two minutes to play.
With the shot clock winding down, Kevin Quigley’s desperation fling bounced past Virginia keeper Alex Rode to beat the horn, kill the momentum and push the Blue Devils’ lead back to two with just 1:56 remaining.
With the season on the line and the clock under one minute, Michael Kraus dumped one in with 45 ticks left. Duke was whistled for a violation on the ensuing faceoff, giving the ‘Hoos one last crack at tying it up, and with 14.4 seconds showing, Laviano notched a hat trick and knotted it up at 12-all on a quick-stick feed from Moore.
The Cavaliers got it back and went for the win, but Kraus couldn’t get it to go in the waning seconds, and the game went to an extra session.
LaSalla won his seventh straight faceoff to start the OT, and the ‘Hoos nearly got a second straight game-winner from Moore, but his shot hit the post just 25 seconds in. UVA kept possession but gave it away moments later. Rode came away with a huge stop with 1:36 left in the first overtime but the Cavaliers turned it right back over to the Devils.
Duke came up empty, however, and Kraus hit the side of the net again with time ticking away, and the game went to a second OT.
After an all-important mad scramble on the faceoff, Conrad scooped it up, and the Cavaliers set up what turned out to be the game-winning play. Moore found Laviano near the crease, and the sophomore attacker caught it clean and quickly flicked his wrist to beat Uppgren and start the celebration. It was Laviano’s game-high fourth goal of the day — on just seven shots — and his team-leading 50th on the season, but by far the most important thus far of his Wahoo career.
UVA committed 13 turnovers in the first half and went into the locker room with just a pair of Ryan Conrad goals, trailing 5-2. The Blue Devil defense was phenomenal in the second quarter, shutting out the Cavaliers, who misfired on all nine shots in the period.
The ‘Hoos were held scoreless over the final 19:55 of the opening 30 minutes and only got four shots on goal after leading 2-1 through 15. Despite the sloppy play, UVA was only down by three goals, and if you’ve paid any attention to the “Cardiac Cavs” this season, you know that deficit was nothing compared to some of the tough spots the ‘Hoos have rallied out of time and time again. Saturday turned out to be no different, aside from finally getting the Duke monkey off their back. Oh, and punching their ticket to Monday’s final in the process — not a bad day’s work for Tiffany’s troops.
Brad Smith led Duke with a hat trick, while Quigley, Joe Robertson, CJ Carpenter and Brian Smyth each scored twice. Uppgren finished with 10 saves.
Laviano‘s 4 tallies led the ‘Hoos, while Aitken scored 3 and added an assist. Moore had a pair of goals and a pair of helpers, and Conrad’s two early scores gave him 30 on the year. Mikey Herring dished out 3 assists, while Kraus put in 2 goals and a game-high 4 assists. Rode came away with 19 important stops.
Unofficially, UVA out-shot Duke, 53-48, and won the ground-ball battle, 44-36.
Now comes the final phase. The ‘Hoos haven’t played for the championship since Dom Starsia led the 2011 squad all the way past Maryland for the title. Since then, Virginia had won just one NCAA Tournament game in five tries until this season’s memorable run. The Memorial Day contest is scheduled for a 1 p.m. start on ESPN2 from Lincoln Financial Field.
