Four takeaways from #2 Virginia lacrosse’s 18-12 loss to #4 Duke (2024)

The Virginia Cavaliers lacrosse lost their nineteenth consecutive regular season game, 18-12, to the #4 Duke Blue Devils on Sunday. The ‘Hoos benched goalie Matthew Nunes at the end of the first quarter after he failed to save a shot off seven attempts on goals as the ‘Hoos trailed 7-3. Sophom*ore Kyle Morris checked in and provided some momentum in the second, but only finished the game with five saves.

Questionable matchups — odd adjustments

Boy, did the decision to put All-American defender Cole Kastner on Zawada and redshirt freshman John Schroter on all-world talent Brennan O’Neill not pay off, as Zawada and O’Neill combined for nine goals.

What confused me after the first quarter surge the Blue Devils had was the decision to bench one of the hottest goalies in the country in Nunes instead of playing around with the matchups more. I don’t know if Nunes had a bad week at practice, told the coaches he wasn’t seeing the ball well, or assistant coach Kip Turner just wants to see Kyle Morris that bad, but the decision seemed rushed to me. Out of the seven goals he let in, one or maybe two of them were saveable. And if you’re so quick to change things in the cage, why are you so slow to change things on the defense?

As the defense struggled to keep up with Duke’s movement off-ball, senior defender Mike Prestipino subbed in, but once he went in you lose a lot of the impact that Griffin Kology or George Fulton gives as turnover creators.

Virginia’s youth struggles

It seemed like the only time the announcers would call McCabe Millon’s name on the broadcast on Sunday was when he would turn the ball over, which he did five times. Besides one force feed to Jack Boyden, which was slightly off the mark, Millon missed a bunch of wide-open passes and also missed a couple of run outs to the end line, which could essentially count as additional turnovers.

In his last five games, Millon has shot 0%, 0%, 22% and 14% on Sunday. He didn’t score his first (and only) goal until the 11:19 mark of the fourth quarter — by that time Duke was leading 17-11. Schroter also didn’t have his best outing against Brennan O’Neil, which you can only blame him for so much, but a lot of the defensive struggles came off-ball which I will touch on below.

UVA lacks depth of midfield production

Every week UVA fans clamor for someone out of the midfield to make a jump and it doesn’t happen. Outside of Jack Boyden and Griffin Schutz, the ‘Hoos haven’t had a multi-goal game from a midfielder since Thomas Mencke’s two-goal game against Albany on March 19 and Ryan Colsey, who’s been starting alongside Boyden and Schutz, hasn’t scored more than one point in a game since the Wahoos’ win over Robert Morris on March 5.

When you have an offense with the NCAA’s sixth leading goalscorer of all-time in Payton Cormier, UVA’s all-time points leader in Connor Shellenberger, and No. 1 overall recruit McCabe Millon, someone may question the need for another goal scorer. But games like this are exactly why.

Dodging wise, Shellenberger had as good a game as he could have against an All-American defender in Kenny Brower, but with Patrick Jamesion seeing the ball as well as he did, Shellenberger only scored once. Truitt Sunderland, who’s been my betting favorite to make the biggest jump, didn’t see any action on Sunday. Joey Terenzi, who returned from injury to play on the wings and on offense, did not provide any impact besides scooping three ground balls.

Virginia struggles to defend off ball

Well, after declaring Jurassic World mania and praising the ‘Hoos fast-paced run-and-gun transition play last week, the defense gave up 18 goals while providing hardly any transition offense on Sunday. I still have the utmost confidence in the ‘Hoos defensive ability to match up with star dodgers, but their communication and off-ball play have left plenty to be desired.

Duke attackman Josh Zawada (who’s primarily an off-ball player) tallied five goals which was a testament to this. Too many times on Sunday Duke attackmen just simply slipped off their defenders for easy dink and dunk goals. Also, four of the Blue Devils’ five fourth-quarter goals came from unsettled situations.

There’s no need to overreact after this loss, after all this happens against Duke every year, but it might be time to pump the brakes on the progress of Virginia’s young defense. The next two games at #6 Syracuse on Saturday at 2:00 PM and against #1 Notre Dame on Saturday, April 27 at 2:00 PM will be the most telling matchups of the season before the ‘Hoos head into postseason play.