April 24, 1999

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The second-ranked Virginia Cavaliers took an early lead and then held on for dear life to defeat fifth-ranked Duke 10-9 Saturday afternoon in the semifinals of the third annual Atlantic Coast Conference Women's Lacrosse Championship at Francis E. Henry Stadium.

The Cavaliers, seeded #3 in this year's tourney, advanced to their third successive ACC championship game and will face #1-ranked Maryland Sunday in the regionally televised championship game at 1 p.m. Maryland, which has won 22 games in a row, survived sixth-ranked North Carolina 19-17 in overtime in the first semifinal game.

Virginia, which took the lead for good with 17:12 left in the first half, could not breathe easy until goalkeeper Francis Segarra saved a shot by Duke's Courtney Rodgers in the final 10 seconds of the game, thwarting a furious Duke comeback.

The Cavaliers, 12-3, have now won seven matches in a row and they have a three-game winning streak in the ACC Tournament, the longest winning skein in tourney history. Duke, which was actually seeded higher in the tournament than Virginia at #2, fell to 10-4 on the season and will close out its season which home matches against Davidson and Dartmouth next week.

Saturday's game was tied only once at 1-1, but a goal by Jamie Haas with 17:12 left in the first half put the Wahoos up for good. Successive goals by Mills Hook, Mia Mooney and Amy Fromal pushed the lead to 5-1 and it appeared the Cavs were on the verge of routing the Blue Devils. However, Duke outscored the Cavaliers 3-2 over the course of the rest of the first half and the Wahoos led at intermission, 7-4.

Duke came out in the second half and scored three of the first four goals. A score by Rodgers with 19:19 to play tightened the game to 8-7. Neither team scored for over 11 minutes after that but Virginia seemed to be safe when Haas scored her third goal of the game and Hull added her second to push the lead to 10-7 with 5:44 left.

But Duke would not go quietly. Rodgers scored with 1:07 to play in the game and Kate Kaiser added a goal on a free position shot with 32 seconds left and the lead was back down to one goal. But Segarra came up big on the shot by Rodgers for the tie and Virginia was back in the ACC finals again.

With two goals, Virginia's Mia Mooney recorded her 100th career point during the game.