Cavs, Devils make run at ACC crown

By Whitey Reid

Published: April 26, 2008

For the last couple of seasons, the Virginia men’s lacrosse team’s hallmark has been its run-and-gun, up-tempo offense.
This afternoon, in the ACC Tournament finals at Klockner Stadium, UVa will be facing top-seeded Duke - a team that employs the same kind of style and is probably a little better at it.
That begs the question: does Virginia change its approach at all heading into the showdown?
“I don’t necessarily know if we’ll change our style of play,” said UVa senior Ben Rubeor, who scored four goals in the semifinal win over Maryland on Friday night, “but we need to change the way we play - a little bit sharper and a little bit harder.
“We just weren’t sharp the last time we played them, [but] I think we showed at certain points that we could play with them.”
In the April 12 contest at Klockner Stadium, Virginia (12-2) tied the game at nine in the third quarter, only to see Duke run off 10 straight goals en route to a 19-9 win. UVa’s loss was the most lopsided in the 15-year history of Klockner.
On Friday night, Duke (14-1) pulled off a similar kind of victory over North Carolina. UNC pulled to within 6-5 in the third quarter before the Blue Devils scored six straight goals and cruised to a 17-6 win.
Today, one of the keys for Virginia will be its success on groundballs. In the last meeting, Duke seemed like the hungrier team whenever the ball was on the deck.
In addition, UVa will have to be more prudent with its decisions in unsettled situations. That, in turn, will put less pressure on its defense.
“They’re a great team,” said Virginia junior Danny Glading. “We have to keep being smart with a ball because they’re a team that can score so fast. You really have to take care of [the ball] because if you take a bad shot they’ll come right down the field and stuff it down your throat.
“We have to be patient on offense and play smart.”
Glading conceded that Virginia may have to tone its offense down a notch.
“I think if we have good chances when we’re pushing the ball, we’ll take them,” he said. “It’s in our nature to do that. We practice like that every day.
“But we have to know when we’re going too fast and have to slow down because we can’t have turnovers.”
Against Maryland, Virginia did an excellent job of cutting down on its unforced miscues. That was a key to atoning for a loss to the Terrapins earlier in the season.
“We kind of all had a sense that a good game was coming and we were able to play a solid 60 minutes,” Rubeor said. “There weren’t too many periods where we weren’t playing that sharply.”
Freshman Shamel Bratton, who scored two goals on Friday, said every Virginia player wanted to get another shot at Duke. Now, they have it.
“I know a couple kids from high school on their team and they’ve been sending me text messages after they beat us the last time,” Bratton said. “Hopefully it will be a different outcome this time.”