Duke eliminates UVA 14-13; Notre Dame tops Cornell 12-7 to advance to NCAA men’s title game

Duke eliminates UVA; ND beats Cornell in Final 4

BALTIMORE — With one flick of his stick, Duke’s Max Quinzani ended Virginia’s gallant bid to put a positive finish on a season clouded by sadness.

Quinzani scored the tie-breaking goal with 12 seconds left, and the Blue Devils defeated the top-seeded Cavaliers 14-13 Saturday night to advance to the NCAA men’s lacrosse national championship game.

Fifth-seeded Duke (15-4) will play unseeded Notre Dame (10-6) on Monday for the title. Notre Dame earned a berth in the finals for the first time with a 12-7 victory over Cornell.

This was an incomparable season for the Cavaliers, for reasons that have little to do with lacrosse. Everything changed on May 3, when UVA women’s player Yeardley Love was found beaten to death in her campus apartment.

George Huguely, a senior on the men’s team, has been charged with first-degree murder.

Virginia carried on, but it wasn’t easy. Not only were the Cavaliers striving for their fifth national championship, but they were also playing for Love and the women’s team, which was eliminated from the NCAA tournament last week.

All that pressure finally caught up with Virginia (16-2) in the second half against Duke.

“It’s been a fairly extraordinary spring in so many different ways,” said Cavaliers coach Dom Starsia, who had a patch that read Y.L. 1 on his shirt, a tribute to Love and her jersey number.

“The final score may be the least important part of what has transpired here throughout the spring, really and truly,” Starsia said.

Virginia’s Chris Bocklet wiped away tears as Starsia spoke. Later, the sophomore said, “It’s been a very emotional season for us. This has probably been the hardest season to play in for any of us.”

Senior Steele Stanwick said, “It’s definitely been difficult the last month. Playing seems to take our minds off of everything that happened. I’m not going to lie and say it’s been easy.”

After Chris Bocklet scored for the Cavaliers early in the third quarter to put Virginia up 8-5, Duke took over. Quinzani scored three times during a seven-goal blitz that made it 12-8 with 12:11 left.

Rhamel Bratton ended the Cavaliers’ scoring drought at just over 18 minutes, and two more goals made it 12-11 with 6:55 to go.

A goal by Duke’s Zach Howell blunted the comeback bid, but Stanwick answered for Virginia with 1:50 remaining, and Brian Carroll tied it at 13 with 1:21 to play.

“We had a chance to roll over and didn’t. I probably wouldn’t have expected any less,” Starsia said.

Quinzani then ended the Cavaliers’ hopes with his fourth goal of the game off an assist by Ned Crotty.

“We loved the way the University of Virginia competed for 60 minutes,” Blue Devils coach John Danowski said. “We thought there was a time at the end of the third quarter or early fourth quarter they were going to get a little tired. But their kids fought valiantly and fought hard and played tremendously.”

Both of Virginia’s losses this season came against Duke. This one, obviously, hurt most.

“I don’t want this diminish for them what they’ve done this season,” Starsia said.

In the first game, Notre Dame become the first unseeded team since Massachusetts in 2006 to earn a spot in the title game.

The Irish ended the regular season by dropping three of five to fall to 7-6. But the Irish received a berth in the postseason tournament anyway, and they haven’t lost since.

“We had the talent all year. We were just a little inconsistent,” goaltender Scott Rodgers said. “I believed in the team, and I knew we could do this.”

Neal Hicks scored four goals, Zach Brenneman had three and Rodgers stopped 16 shots for the Irish — including eight in the first quarter.

Seeking its first win over Cornell (12-6) in six tries, Notre Dame used a four-goal run to take an early 4-1 lead. It was 6-3 at halftime, and after the Big Red scored twice in succession to make it 7-5 midway through the third quarter, Hicks restored the three-goal cushion by scoring on a rebound.

Rodgers and the Irish defense made sure there would be no fourth-quarter comeback for the Big Red.

“There’s no loss that’s easy to swallow throughout the course of the regular season, but there’s nothing more difficult than a season-ending loss,” Cornell coach Jeff Tambroni said.

Cornell became the third straight seeded team victimized by Notre Dame. The Irish opened with a win over sixth-seeded Princeton, then beat No. 3 Maryland to advance to the semifinals for only the second time.