Cavaliers’ tumultuous season ends in semifinal heartbreak
BALTIMORE – Dancing behind the cage, Duke attack Ned Crotty played a cat-and-mouse game with the Virginia defense. With the score tied and the final seconds ticking off the clock in the NCAA semifinals, Crotty had the game in his stick, exactly where the Blue Devils wanted it.
For two years, Crotty has been the nation’s best playmaker and teammate Max Quinzani has been the nation’s best shooter. As he drove to his left, drawing the Virginia defense, Crotty knew what to do.
Sensing that Quinzani would be free as he ran around a pick, Crotty delivered the ball. The 5-foot-8 attackman caught it, fired it, and buried it, over the right shoulder of Virginia goalie Adam Ghitelman. Quinzani’s goal with 12 seconds left gave Duke a 14-13 victory over Virginia, sending the Blue Devils to the championship game on Memorial Day at M&T Bank Stadium.
“Max and I met eyes,” said Quinzani.
“We call it eyezies,” added Crotty. “Even though he’s small, I can still see him.”
While Crotty leads the nation in assists (62), Quinzani leads in goals (68), hitting 52 percent of his shots.
On the key play, before he made his move, Crotty faked multiple times, right and left, teasing Ghitelman and All-American defender Ken Clausen.
“When you have a cat-and-mouse, you always want to try to go to the goalie side,” said Crotty. “I just kind of ran up the left side of the field, looked in the middle, got my hands free, and didn’t rush it.”
With the win, No. 5 Duke (15-4) advances to the title game against unseeded Notre Dame (10-6). The Irish toppled the Blue Devils on Feb. 20, 11-7, in Durham. It was the quality win that got the Irish into the tournament.
“It’s going to take a tremendous amount of discipline on our parts,” said Duke coach John Danowski. “There’s this fine line between being athletic, playing fast, and being disciplined, making good decisions, playing smart, playing together. We’re going to have to turn the switch a little bit.”
Saturday’s loss was a tough way for No. 1 Virginia (16-2) to close the season, after the arrest, earlier this month, of teammate George Huguely, accused of the murder of Virginia women’s lacrosse player Yeardley Love.
The toll the tumultuous month took on coach Dom Starsia, who also lost his father the first week of May, was evident in a somber post-game news conference.
“In the end, it would have been so much easier if we had won,” said Starsia, finally cracking a smile.
When asked about the off-season, Starsia hinted at an uncertain future as Cavaliers coach.
“I can’t say for sure. A lot of people helped me stand up and get through all this,” said Starsia. “I think I need to figure [things] out a little bit before I sort of jump into the recruiting again.”
Starsia had much to be proud of Saturday, his team recovered from what seemed a knockout blow. After leading 8-5, Virginia surrendered seven straight goals in a run that spanned 11:48 and left the Cavaliers down, 12-8, with 12 minutes left.
But Virginia rallied with five of the next six goals to tie it. Senior midfielder Brian Carroll (3 goals, 1 assists) had two of the tallies in the run, including a crank shot at 1:21 that squared it, 13-13.
“The fact that we played hard and came back and had a chance to roll over and didn’t, I probably wouldn’t have expected anything less,” said Starsia. “The final score was probably the least important part of what transpired here throughout the spring.”
Leading 8-5 in the third period and Ghitelman (8 saves) playing well, the Cavaliers looked in control. But over the last 24:44, the junior goalie surrendered nine tallies while making just one save.
Taking advantage were Quinzani (4 goals), sophomore midfielder Justin Turri (3 goals, 1 assist), Zach Howell (2 goals, 1 assist), and Crotty (1 goal, 2 assists). Sophomore Will McKee (2 goals) also contributed in two man-up situations as the Blue Devils attackmen accounted for 9 goals and 3 assists.
Faceoffs were a major key as well. Duke won 19 of 30 behind the work of senior Sam Payton (15 of 23). Sophomore C.J. Costabile (2 of 3) scooped up one of Payton’s faceoff wins to start the fourth quarter and scored an uplifting goal that put Duke up 10-8.
Virginia was led by sophomore attackmen Chris Bocklet (4 goals) and Steele Stanwick (3 goals, 2 assists).
Both the Cavaliers’ losses this season came to the nemesis Blue Devils. Before the Virginia beat Duke in the ACC Tournament, the Cavaliers had lost eight straight to the Devils.
“There aren’t that many teams that we run into that are as athletic we they are. But they might be more athletic at the end of the day,” said Starsia. “Not a lot of teams are willing to attack us up and down the field. They’re one of the teams that is.”
For all the running up and down the field that both teams did Saturday, the difference was Crotty-to-Quinzani, attackmen who live up to a tradition of excellence in Durham.
“They went from [Matt] Danowski and [Zack] Greer, to Crotty and Quinzani,” said Starsia. “You can put them into any group of top seven or eight attackmen who have played the game the last 20 years.
