No. 17 Virginia Tech Falls to No. 12 duke, 12-8

Jack Brizendine

February 22, 2021

BLACKSBURG, Va. — After jumping out to a slim 3-1 lead early, a goal from Duke’s Katie Cronin halted Virginia Tech’s momentum and initiated an 11-5 scoring run that led to the Blue Devils’ victory.

No. 17 Virginia Tech (1-1, 0-1 ACC) suffered its first loss of the season Sunday afternoon, falling to No. 17 Duke (3-0, 1-0 ACC), 12-8, in the team’s first ACC action of the year.

Early on, it looked like the Hokies were going to run away with the game as Sarah Lubnow, Paige Petty and Caroline Allen all found the back of the net in the first eight minutes of play. Each of the three goals were unassisted scores.

Virginia Tech’s short-lived luck ran out after that, however, as three of the next four goals belonged to Duke, tying the game at four apiece.

The Hokies fired back with fifteen minutes left in the first half as Emma Crooks fired in a score, giving the lead back to Virginia Tech, 5-4.

Duke answered with three goals of its own, including one score from Caroline DeBillis when the Blue Devils were down a player due to penalty.

Crooks launched in another goal with only two seconds left in the first half to cut the Hokies deficit to one heading into halftime.

Duke picked up where it left off in the second half, scoring three straight goals out of halftime.

Virginia Tech responded halfway through the second half with another goal from Sarah Lubnow to reduce Duke’s lead to three, but the effort was in vain.

Abby Landry and Anna Callahan both tallied goals for the Blue Devils in the final ten minutes of the game, icing the Duke victory.

Caroline Allen snagged a late goal with 3:19 to play to give the Hokies some pride. Allen, Crooks, Lubnow, Petty all scored two goals each on the day.

Virginia Tech returns to the field on Wednesday when it hosts Longwood (0-1) at 3 p.m.