Philadelphia — Virginia’s Ian Laviano scored with 3:09 left in the second overtime to give the third-seeded Cavaliers to a 13-12 double-overtime win over second-seeded Duke in the NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament semifinals Saturday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field.
Virginia scored the game’s final three goals to advance to Monday’s title game, where it will face Yale (16-3), which upset top-seeded Penn State, 21-17, in the second semifinal in Philadelphia.
Trailing 12-10 with 1:25 remaining in regulation, Virginia (16-3) capitalized on a Duke turnover and scored twice in a span of 31 seconds to force overtime. The Cavaliers nearly won in regulation, but missed the cage twice in the final eight seconds.
Laviano had the two final goals for Virginia with Matt Moore assisting on both tallies. The Cavaliers attackman finished the day with four goals and Moore had two goals and two assists.
Loyola Blakefield graduate Ryan Conrad scored twice and had five ground balls for the Cavaliers.
Duke (13-5) was playing in its 12th NCAA semifinal in program history. The Blue Devils were led on offense by Brad Smith’s three goals and four points overall, while CJ Carpenter and Joe Robertson each had two goals and an assist.
Virginia scored first and led 2-1 after a first quarter that featured 17 combined shots and eight combined turnovers, six of which were by the Cavaliers.
Duke came out of the second quarter on fire, scoring four goals on 11 shots, and holding Virginia’s high-powered offense scoreless. The two goals tied for the second fewest allowed by Duke in the first half this season as the Blue Devils kept the Cavaliers off the board for the final 19:55 of the first half.
The third quarter was back and forth as the teams traded goals early on. Virginia cut the lead to two goals twice, but the Blue Devils always seemed to have an answer with Robertson and Brian Smyth netting goals seven seconds apart to keep Duke ahead 7-4.
The Cavaliers responded with a 3-0 run to end the third period, the final one coming off the stick of Laviano with six seconds left in the quarter.
The Blue Devils jumped back ahead by three with goals from Smyth and Kevin Quigley to set up what proved to be a heart-stopping final 15 minutes.
After Virginia scored three of the next four to make it 11-10 in favor of the Blue Devils, Quigley came up with a huge goal with time winding down on the shot clock with 1:56 left.
Duke got possession again with 1:25 left, but couldn’t clear against Virginia’s ride, allowing the Cavaliers to make their improbable comeback.
Yale 21, Penn State 17: The defending champion Bulldogs sprinted to a 10-1 lead and then held off a couple of charges from the Nittany Lions (16-2) to advance to Monday’s final.
Boys’ Latin graduate Matt Brandau led the charge for Yale with seven goals and an assist, while McDonogh grad Jackson Morrill was the team’s second-leading scorer with three goals and two assists.
Jack Tye added two goals and two assists in the victory.
Grant Ament led Penn State with three goals and five assists and Dylan Foulds added five goals.