Maryland was the host. But Virginia won the title.
The Cavaliers of Virginia won their third Atlantic Coast Conference lacrosse tournament championship Sunday, with a 13-8 win over Duke at M&T Bank Stadium.
Virginia and Duke played evenly to start off the bright, warm day in front of a small crowd. Virginia took a 5-4 lead into half, before the Cavaliers outscored Duke 8-4 in the second half.
Freshman Blair Weymouth tied a tournament final record with six goals for Virginia. Bethesda?s Tyler Leachman had four goals for Virginia, which made her the all-time tournament scoring leader with 11.
Senior Katie Chrest, a Maryvale alumnus, led Duke with three goals and Carolyn Davis had two goals for the Blue Devils.
Virginia took over in the second half, controlling the ball for most of the 30- minute period and starting the half with a 6-0 run.
Kim Connors started the run five minutes into the half to put Virginia up 6-4. Weymouth added goal number four with 21:39 left on a free possession after taking a hard foul. Leachman assisted Nikki Lieb for a goal and Weymouth scored two goals in two minutes to put her total at six and tie Maryland?s Jen Adams for the most goals in an ACC Tournament final.
Megan Del Monte ended Virginia?s 6-0 run to with Duke?s fifth goal of the game. Virginia answered with a Leachman goal, assisted by Lieb, to put Virginia up 12-5 with under eight minutes to play. But Del Monte scored again, to cut the lead back to six.
Leachman scored her fourth goal with just over four minutes left to put Virginia in front, 13-6. That goal made Leachman the leading scorer in an ACC tournament, with 11 goals. Carolyn Davis and Leigh Jester closed the scoring, both grabbing goals in the final minute of play to put the score at13-8.
The last time Virginia has won the ACC women?s title was 2004, and the first Cavaliers tournament title wasin 1998.
ACC TOURNEY FACTS
» Tyler Leachman was named the most valuable player of the 2006 ACC All-Tournament team. Virginia also had Blair Weymouth, Nikki Lieb and Ginger Miles on the All-Tournament team.
» Duke?s Katie Chrest, Kristen Waagbo, Rachel Sanford and Carolyn Davis were also selected to the All-Tournament team.
» Delia Cox (Maryland), Brooke Dieringer (North Carolina) and Lindsay Pierce rounded out the rest of the All-tournament team.
