What Duke soccer's Manny Diaz stated forward of ACC title sport rematch vs Virginia – The Fayetteville Observer

A bit of greater than two weeks in the past, Duke football was internet hosting Virginia at Wallace Wade for a Week 12 ACC assembly.
The Cavaliers handed the Blue Devils a 34-17 loss, Duke’s second in ACC play and a outcome that each one however erased their path to the convention championship, or so everybody thought.
“After the Virginia sport, in our thoughts, actually, Charlotte was an afterthought,” Diaz stated on Sunday, Nov. 30 as a part of the ACC championship head coaches teleconference. “Felt just like the league was past us at that time.”
Diaz didn’t sugarcoat Duke’s efficiency, both. Virginia held Duke to a season-low 255 yards of offense, averaging simply 4.4 yards per play. The Blue Devils didn’t convert a primary down till the second quarter and did not rating a landing till the fourth. Its protection, in the meantime, allowed Virginia to rack up 540 complete yards of offense with quarterback Chandler Morris throwing for 2 touchdowns and J’Mari Taylor operating for an additional two.
“That was by far, I felt, the worst sport we performed this 12 months,” Diaz stated. “However I really feel like when folks say that, you are not giving Virginia credit score. I believed Virginia was excellent that evening.”
Duke adopted the loss with a 32-25 win over UNC to retain the Victory Bell and a 45-32 win over Wake Forest to go 6-0 towards in-state opponents underneath Diaz. The win over the Demon Deacons, paired with Pitt’s loss to Miami and SMU’s loss to Cal, punched Duke a ticket to the ACC championship sport on Saturday, Dec. 6 at Financial institution of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Blue Devils shall be taking part in for his or her first ACC title since 2013 and eighth total. And their opponent? None aside from the Virginia Cavaliers and head coach Tony Elliott. The Cavaliers defeated Virginia Tech 27-7 in Week 14 to punch their ticket to play for a convention title.
For Diaz, Duke’s inconceivable run to the ACC title captures the persistence that has outlined their season.
“We stayed within the battle, we have been resilient, we valued persistence over perfection,” Diaz stated, “and we should be on this sport.”
Virginia enters the competition presenting the identical problem it did two weeks in the past: its balanced offense that ranks third within the league in dashing (188.7ypg) and yards per sport (433.2) and fourth in scoring (33.2 ppg). Its protection ranks second in factors allowed per sport (20), third in yards allowed (312.3) and fifth towards the run (108.9).
Duke counters with the league’s high passing offense (289.3 ypg), second greatest in scoring (34.6 ppg), and fifth in complete yards (421.4). However for Diaz, the main focus largely stays on execution.
“I feel the massive factor with our guys is simply play higher,” he stated. “Like I stated, Virginia had rather a lot to do with that, however I simply really feel like we performed poorly that evening. And so we’ll simply be wanting to attempt to current a significantly better model of ourselves than we did on that event.”
Kickoff is ready for Saturday, Dec. 6 at 8 p.m. ET.
Anna Snyder covers Duke for The Fayetteville Observer as a part of the USA TODAY Community. Attain her at asnyder@usatodayco.com or comply with her @annaesnydr on X, previously generally known as Twitter. 

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