As the regular season winds down, the Blue Devils find themselves in the midst of another winning streak—one that has given them sole possession of second place in the ACC.
But with a road trip coming up, Duke will need two more wins to keep pace in conference play with just three games separating the top five teams.
The Blue Devils will take their four-game winning streak to Blacksburg, Va., Friday to face Virginia Tech at 6:15 p.m. at Cassell Coliseum before playing at Pittsburgh Sunday at 1 p.m at Fitzgerald Field House. Duke enters its second-to-last road trip of the season just one game behind eighth-ranked North Carolina for the top spot in the ACC with a game against the Tar Heels looming at the end of the month.
“All I want us to do is focus on the next matchup we have,” Blue Devil head coach Jolene Nagel said. “It makes me nervous. We’re going to have to work very hard for both of these matchups to get them on the road.”
Duke (18-6, 12-2 in the ACC) played both the Hokies and Panthers at home in October and won both matches in four sets. Although Virginia Tech (9-16, 4-10) enters Friday's game near the bottom of the conference standings, the Blue Devils dropped their opening set to the Hokies in the early-season match between the teams.
Duke's defense bounced back, eventually holding Virginia Tech to a .110 hitting percentage and finishing with eight blocks in the 3-1 win. But the Hokies will raise their level of play at home, where they have notched three of their four ACC wins.
“Their record might not show it, but they’ve got some really talented athletes,” Nagel said. “I would never take them lightly.... Records mean nothing.”
Senior Lindsey Owens has been effective for Virginia Tech all season and is coming off a season-high 24 kills and .561 hitting percentage in a win against Clemson last weekend. Owens ranks seventh in the conference with an average of 3.5 kills per set so far this season.
The Blue Devils will look to counter the Hokies' hitting with another solid defensive performance led by sophomore Leah Meyer and senior Sasha Karelov, who lead the team in blocks and digs, respectively. Duke will then turn to Meyer and senior Jordan Tucker to attack a Virginia Tech defense that ranks near the bottom of the conference in blocks.
The Blue Devils will face a much tougher task Sunday when they match up with a Pittsburgh team that has won five straight matches, including a home victory against North Carolina. Like Duke, the Panthers have slowly found their stride after an inconsistent start to the season.
Pittsburgh is one of the most talented offensive teams in the conference and ranks third in the ACC in both assists and kills per set this season. The Panthers will rely on versatile outside hitter Stephanie Williams—who paces the team with 357 kills on the season and an average of 3.7 kills per set—to find ways to attack the Blue Devils.
“We’ve seen video on both teams, we have a little bit more work and preparation to do. We’ll just be focusing on one match at a time just like we’ve been doing all season,” Nagel said. “It’s an important stretch during a busy time of year. This team has been tough and resilient and playing well.”
Williams and the rest of the Pittsburgh hitters will certainly have their eyes on Tucker after the senior finished with a career-high 10 blocks in the teams' first matchup. Although Duke came away with a fairly comfortable victory the first time around, the Blue Devils know that Sunday's match will feature two teams that have both improved and changed a lot in the last month.
“When we play a team that we’ve beaten the first time, I want to make sure our team is doing everything we can to prepare and be ready because the second time is a lot harder,” Nagel said “We’ll do our homework and get our rest."
With the Blue Devils entering this weekend's action as winners of 14 of their last 16 games, they have a chance to sneak into the NCAA tournament if they keep it up. Despite its impressive stretch of play, Duke is currently No. 75 in RPI and will need to secure a couple more big wins the rest of the season to qualify for the NCAA tournament.
But for now, the Blue Devils are not looking past this weekend's road trip with games against No. 18 Florida State and the Tar Heels on the horizon in the last two weeks of the season.
“We have not [talked about the tournament],” Nagel said. “We certainly did at the beginning of the year, we certainly do at other times of the year, but right now we’re just trying to concentrate on being best prepared for our next matchup.”
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