Duke volleyball looks to hand Pittsburgh first ACC loss during busy third week of conference play

<p>Junior Anna Kropf and company are hoping to hand Pittsburgh its first loss in ACC play.&nbsp;</p>

Junior Anna Kropf and company are hoping to hand Pittsburgh its first loss in ACC play. 

Although the Blue Devils have won five of their last six games, a red-hot opponent that is unbeaten in ACC play stands in their way for the second straight week.

Following a four-set loss at Notre Dame and road sweep of Louisville, Duke will host Pittsburgh Friday at 6:30 p.m. before taking on Virginia Tech Sunday at 1 p.m. at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils are one of five teams better than .500 early in conference play, so protecting their home court against a Panther team that is one of four squads with a 4-0 ACC record could give a young Duke team a much-needed boost. The Blue Devils are trying to keep an outside shot at an NCAA tournament bid alive.

Duke will also play both Pittsburgh and the Hokies again later in conference play. 

“It’s hard to make the underclassmen really understand what ACC is,” senior middle blocker Jordan Tucker said. “Obviously, I’ve been lucky enough to have experience—this is my fourth year—so I know what it means and I know how important every set is.”

The Blue Devils (9-5, 3-1 in the ACC) own a three-game home winning streak and hope to show they can hang with the conference’s best teams after dropping a tight match against the Fighting Irish last week. Duke’s youth has shown at times this season and did again in South Bend, Ind., as Blue Devil errors in the first two sets allowed Notre Dame to take a decisive 2-0 lead and deal Duke its first loss in conference play.

The Fighting Irish blockers stymied the Blue Devil offense with 19.5 blocks—a key stat to watch Friday when Pittsburgh (13-3, 4-0) tries to build on its six-game winning streak and avenge last year’s 3-2 loss at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The Panthers have taken down two ranked teams already this season and have four players with hitting percentages better than .300—Duke has just one—including freshman star Layne Van Buskirk. Van Buskirk’s eye-popping .419 hitting percentage is tops in the ACC and 10th in the nation, and the Canadian middle blocker has already been named ACC Freshman of the Week twice this year.

She will pose a unique challenge for Tucker, sophomore Leah Meyer and the Blue Devils’ other blockers, who hope to ride the momentum from their dominant performance at Louisville into Friday’s contest.

“Jordan’s ability to play defense when we need it is really exciting to see,” Duke head coach Jolene Nagel said. “Volleyball is just a game of momentum and we need to understand we all need to be at a certain level like that intensity-wise to be able to execute like we’re capable.”

Nagel is hoping young stars like Meyer, freshman outside hitter Jamie Stivers and freshman setter Cindy Marina can continue their recent improvement against Pittsburgh—the trio has helped spark a Blue Devil squad that struggled to a 4-4 record to start the year. 

Following its contest against Pittsburgh, Duke’s youth will be tested again when it takes on Virginia Tech (7-8, 2-2), which has won just four of 30 matchups against the Blue Devils.

This year’s Hokie team could be poised to knock off Duke despite a 1-5 road record led by a trio of senior outside hitters. Lindsey Owens leads the trio after pacing Virginia Tech in kills last season and notching 24 digs in the Hokies’ 3-1 loss in Durham last year.

Owens’ classmate Amanda McKinzie has stepped up for Virginia Tech lately and leads the team in kills in conference games—the Hokies have swept Clemson and Virginia and suffered 3-1 setbacks to Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech so far in league play. 

With plenty of time left to build a solid NCAA tournament resume, the Blue Devils are happy to be returning home to host their next two games and hope they can keep their winning streak at Cameron going moving forward.

“We just want to keep going and play well in the ACC for as long as we can. We just want to play hard—we want to get better,” Tucker said. “We just have to keep reminding ourselves that we have a goal in mind to come here in November so we got to keep it all in perspective.”

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