No. 4 UVA drops heartbreaker in OT to No. 3 Duke, 13-12

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

UVA men’s lacrosseThe No. 4 Virginia Cavaliers dropped a heartbreaker in overtime, 13-12, to the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils on Thursday night at Klöckner Stadium.

Duke (10-1, 3-1 ACC) scored the game’s final three goals, including two in the fourth quarter to force overtime.
The Blue Devils held UVA (9-3, 2-3 ACC) scoreless for the final 14:24 of regulation as well as 3:28 in overtime to secure the win.

In the closing seconds of regulation, Payton Cormier found Charlie Bertrand on the doorstep on what appeared to be the game-winning score. However, Bertrand was charged with falling inside the goal mouth after the ball found nylon, negating the score.

UVA won the overtime faceoff and after each defense came up with big saves, Dox Aitken was stripped of the ball on offense and Duke was off in transition. Joe Robertson dodged from X to score the unassisted goal with 32 seconds left in the first overtime to secure the win.

The Cavaliers took a narrow 12-10 lead on the heels of a 4-1 UVA run over the third and fourth quarters. After Michael Sowers gave Duke a 9-8 lead with an unassisted goal with 7:15 left in the third, Petey LaSalla won the ensuing faceoff and scored seven seconds later to start the streak. Matt Moore scored an unassisted goal with 14:24 left in regulation on an inside roll dodge to cap the streak.

Duke’s Brennan O’Neill started the Blue Devils’ final 3-0 spurt with a goal at 9:55 in the fourth, followed by Garret Leadmon’s game-tying goal with 1:45 in regulation.