Jess Wasilewski had 4 goals against Duke.

With an 11-5 lead and 28:51 left in the game, the No. 4 Virginia women's lacrosse seemed poised to win their 10th game of the season and third straight against the No. 5 Duke Blue Devils.

Someone apparently forgot to tell Duke.

Virginia's inability to control draws late in the game cost the Cavaliers as the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils rallied to the improbable 19-18 overtime victory. The Devils never led until 8:46 left in regulation when senior attacker Leigh Jester received a good feed from midfielder Carolyn Davis.

Despite giving up a six-goal lead, the Cavaliers still had an excellent opportunity to close out the game with a victory. Virginia's senior captain Jess Wasilewski made a great stutter step move from in tight that caused her defender to fall and resulted in a point blank goal. The score put Virginia up 18-16 with only 1:41 remaining, sending the crowd at Klockner Stadium into a frenzy and deeply frustrated Virginia coach Julie Myers.

"When we're up by one with two minutes to go we went into a delay of game," Myers said. "I know we ended up going up by two but you should never take a shot when the time ticking out and you're in a delay."

The goal gave Duke a chance to get the ball back and just nine seconds after Wasilewski's goal Jester hit the back of the net off a fastbreak - it all came with Duke winning the draw.

"I think draw control was tied in the first half, I think Duke got two thirds of the second half [draws] and that's just a lot of extra possession time," Myers said. "Our transition struggled a little bit; we stopped working as hard as we did. Things don't come as easily for you when you stop working like that."

Duke won the next draw, but Wasilewski was able to corral a ground ball in the final minute. Instead of pulling back she threw an errant pass right to the Devils' Kristin Waagbo who put in her sixth goal of the game to force overtime.

Going into overtime, the frantic pace slowed to a crawl. Both teams wanted to avoid the costly mistake that would sent their team home with a loss. After eight minutes of action, Virginia goalie Kendall McBrearty made a tremendous save and fed the ball deep down field for a perfect fastbreak opportunity. Sophomore attacker Blair Weymouth had the one-on-one opportunity with Duke goalie Kim Ibesi at the right alley but her shot deflected off Ibesi's stick and right into the stick of a visiting midfielder.

The Blue Devils charged down the field and with the transition defense in shambles, Duke's Rachel Sanford flicked the ball behind the head of McBrearty for the win.

"She has a strong leftie shot and she just got her arms open and ripped it," Jessy Morgan said. "There was no slide on the right side. It was a great hard shot; there's not much you can do."

Indeed all Virginia could do was look on and wonder what could have been. Twice UVa had a six-goal lead in the contest, but mental errors and missed assignments cost them dearly. For the Cavalier defense, it is especially worrisome to note that they have given up 32 goals in the last 2 games.

"Overall I think I'm disappointed with our defense for letting Duke keep getting that same look over and over," Myers said. "For us to not make that many adjustments is disappointing but we had our opportunities. We fought hard but we didn't execute at critical times."

The second half numbers are staggering. Virginia gave up 13 goals in the second half and was outshot 22-14. The Cavaliers also picked up 18 turnovers, only 6 of which were forced. These numbers will have to improve if Virginia wishes to take home their second straight ACC Championship.

On the bright side for the Hoos, their offense continues to evolve into one of the most dynamic in the country. The Cavaliers have scored in double figures in 10 of 12 games so far this season. Virginia also has a variety of threats - today seven different players notched a goal for the stat book, including four each by Wasilewski and freshman midfielder Brittany Kalkstein. In all, 10 of Virginia's 18 goals were assisted, 3 of those dishes coming from senior attacker Kate Breslin. Virginia's leading scorer may have struggled to get the ball in the back of the cage but still found ways of being productive.

Virginia has little time to lament over what could have been, though. On Wednesday, the Cavaliers will travel to take on the Old Dominion Monarchs before returning to Klockner for their final home game of the season against Georgetown.

"On Monday, we're just going to be working on the things that didn't go our way," Weymouth said. "Hopefully we can tighten up."

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