Loftus Guides Duke To 11-9 ACC Championship Win Over Virginia

Sunday, April 27

Charlottesville, Va.

3:30 PM

Duke University

Virginia (Finals)

Loftus Guides Duke To 11-9 ACC Championship Win Over Virginia

4/27/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse

By: Duke Sports Information

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. ? Dan Loftus recorded a season-high 17 saves to help top-seeded and second-ranked Duke repeat as ACC Champions with an 11-9 victory over third-seeded and third-ranked Virginia on Sunday afternoon at Klockner Stadium in Charlottesville, Va.

Duke held an 11-3 lead with six minutes left in the third period and held off a determined Virginia squad over the last 21-plus minutes to hold on for the program's sixth ACC title, including the second straight league crown and the fourth in the last eight years.

With the victory, Duke improves to 15-1 on the season while Virginia falls to 12-3. Duke has now won five straight games against Virginia, but the Cavaliers continue to lead the all-time series, 48-20. The Blue Devils also downed the Cavaliers in the 2007 ACC Tournament title contest in Durham by a 12-9 count.

Loftus earned ACC Tournament MVP honors for his efforts. He was joined on the ACC All-Tournament team by teammates Matt Danowski, Zack Greer, Parker McKee, Ned Crotty, Max Quinzani, Tony McDevitt and Nick O'Hara. Danowski becomes just the second player in ACC Tournament history to earn four ACC All-Tournament nods, joining Maryland's Scott Hochstedt, while Greer now has three to his credit.

Danowski led Duke with three goals and an assist while Crotty and Greer each scored two goals. Quinzani and Steve Schoeffel, playing in his hometown of Charlottesville, each had a goal and an assist.

The Cavaliers posted the first goal of the day less than three minutes into the game when Ben Rubeor fed a cutting Brian Carroll for a marker. Duke's riding abilities proved beneficial just over one minute later when Danowski an errant Cavalier throw and Brad Ross tossed in an open-net goal to tie the game at 1-1.

With 8:36 left in the opening period, Schoeffel dodged down the left alley and registered an unassisted goal to give the Blue Devils a 2-1 advantage following a defensive takeaway by McKee. The Blue Devils then closed the first quarter with two goals as Greer scored on a feed from Danowski with 1:14 on the clock and Quinzani dumped in a marker from in front of the cage after taking a pass from Schoeffel with just 8.5 seconds remaining.

Duke pushed its streak of consecutive goals to five at the 11:27 mark of the second quarter when Zach Howell used a rollback move on the left side to get free in the middle of the field and beat Virginia goalkeeper Bud Petit with a low shot. Crotty then worked from behind the net and notched a goal to make the score 6-1 in favor of Duke midway through the second period. The Cavaliers ended the Duke run at the 6:34 mark when Garrett Billings scored off an assist from Peter Lamade.

Crotty again beat his defender from behind the goal for his second tally of the game, pushing Duke's lead back to five goals with 5:13 on the clock. Just 24 seconds later, the Cavaliers got an extra man marker from Gavin Gill to trim the lead to 7-3. Duke took the four-goal lead into halftime, thanks in part to nine saves by Loftus.

Named the 2008 ACC Player of the Year for the third time just three days earlier, Danowski scored back-to-back goals just 47 seconds apart to give Duke a 9-3 lead six minutes into the third period. Quinzani and Greer then recorded extra man goals less than one minute apart before Virginia made the score 11-4 on Rubeor's tally at the 4:56 mark.

Virginia opened the fourth quarter with a man advantage, and Rubeor's goal from the right side pulled the home team to within 11-5. With 11:33 remaining, Virgina notched another extra man goal when Brian Carroll found the back of the net. The Cavaliers' spurt reached four goals when Rhamel Bratton scored from Rubeor with 8:56 on the clock.

The Cavaliers then had a late flurry to make the game close. With a man-up, Carroll scored on an assist by Lamade with 1:42 left and then after winning the face-off, Rubeor scored just 10 seconds later to pull within two goals at 11-9, Virginia's sixth straight goal. Duke was able to take control of the ball for the last minute and a half to get the victory.

Duke improves to 15-14 all-time in ACC Tournament action including a 5-5 ledger in championship games.

Duke will next take the field to end the regular season Sunday, May 4, with a home game against St. John's at Koskinen Stadium. Face off is set for 1 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ACC Select (http://duke.accselect.com).

Selection for the 2008 NCAA Tournament will take place Sunday night. The selection show will take place at 9 p.m. and be televised live on ESPNU.

DUKE NOTES

Matt Danowski becomes just the second player in ACC Tournament history to earn four All-ACC Tournament team honors, joining Maryland's Scott Hochstedt, who played from 1996-99.
Duke's Zack Greer and Virginia's Ben Rubeor both earned their third all-tournament team honor, becoming the eighth and ninth players in league history to accomplish that feat.
Danowski recorded three goals and an assist for four points, pushing his season total to 80 and his career total to 336. He currently ranks second in NCAA history and is just seven points away from Joe Vasta's record of 343. Vasta played for Air Force from 1983-86. The 80 points is the fourth-highest single-season total in Duke history and ninth-highest in ACC history.
Danowski now has 163 career goals and moved into a tie for 14th on the NCAA's all-time chart. He is currently knotted with Princeton's Jesse Hubbard (1995-98) and just two behind Doug Knight from Virginia (1994-97; 165).
Danowski recorded one assist and now has 173 in his career and remains in fifth place in NCAA history. He is just one back of fourth place and Kevin Love from Princeton (1991-94).
In seven career ACC Tournament games, Danowski finishes with 34 points with 17 goals and 17 assists.
Greer's two goals pushes his career total to 190 and he becomes just the fourth player in NCAA history to record 190 or more goals. He is just three goals away from Stan Clockerton's NCAA-record total of 193, which he accumulated for N.C. State from 1977-80.
Max Quinzani recorded one goal and Duke improves to 28-2 when he scores.
Dan Loftus becomes the fifth ACC Tournament MVP in school history, joining Ross Moscatti (1995), Scott Bross (2001), A.J. Kincel (2002) and Danowski (2007).
Duke recorded its 15th win of the season, the third most wins in a season for Duke and tied for fifth best in ACC history. Duke's 2005 and '07 squads recorded 17 wins along with Virginia's 2006 team. North Carolina had 16 wins in 1991 while the Cavaliers' had 15 wins in 2003.
Duke has now won four straight ACC Tournament games, the second longest streak in program history. Duke won five straight from 2001-03.
The ACC Championship is Duke's 109th in its history, including the 59th in spring sports, which ranks second in the league. Duke also has 40 ACC titles this decade which also ranks second most in the conference.
Duke now has six men's lacrosse championships and five tournament championships. Duke won the 1954 title and then won the tournament in 1995, 2001, '02, '07 and '08).
Duke has won at least one ACC title in 44 of the league's 55 year existence, including every season since 1979-80 and Duke has now won multiple titles each season since 1990-91. Duke also won the women's golf championship earlier this spring.