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includes weekend schedule
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Volleyball team practices for difficult weekend slate**
The Duke volleyball team may soon end up in the Guiness Book of World Records under the category of endurance sports.
While it will take a few more matches until they set the record, the Blue Devils will come ever closer this weekend. For the second weekend in a row the Blue Devils will be playing three matches in the course of two days.
Last weekend after beating American and Virginia Tech in the first two games of a round-robin tournament in Athens, Ga., Duke ran into a strong-swinging Georgia squad in the finals and came home with a 3-0 loss.
The Blue Devils will try to avenge that loss against another Southeastern Conference power when they open up a weekend homestand Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium against the 16th-ranked Florida Gators.
A match against Florida is enough to make any team's weekend difficult, but the Blue Devils will also complete their homestand with two matches against Big Ten opponents on Saturday. The first match will start at noon against Michigan, and then the Blue Devils will take on Purdue at 7:30 p.m.
Three matches in two days against top-flight opponents will certainly be tiring, but the Blue Devils have been working hard and are convinced they have the conditioning needed to perform well.
"It is a test of conditioning, but we are in good shape," said head coach Jon Wilson. "The other teams have to play the same amount of games that we do."
While conditioning may affect all the teams this weekend, Duke has the additional problem of having two key players injured.
Junior Adrian Nicol and freshman Kristin McMahon, both middle blockers, are each suffering from an ankle injury. Nicol's and McMahon's injuries are improving and both will probably see time this weekend, but neither is at full strength.
Despite the injuries, Wilson thinks the Blue Devils can perform better than they did last weekend.
"Those two key injuries played a large role in the loss against Georgia, but we'll be healthier this weekend," he said.
Both players add significant height to the Blue Devil lineup. Nicol is 5-10 and McMahon is 6-0, so they are key blockers on the frontline of Duke's defense. Without the pair at full strength, the defense is a little thin up front.
Wilson says the team will be spending most of the week working on defense, and sophomore setter Cappy Meyer agreed that working on defense was important.
"Our offense did really well last week, so now we just need to step up a little bit on defense to win the big games," she said.
Meyer said the team is also looking forward to the good competition it will face this weekend.
"All this week we have been practicing and looking forward to Florida," Meyer said.
The Blue Devils' desire to play teams better than themselves in order to improve is an attitude that comes straight from the top. Wilson is always glad to see his team face tougher opponents.
"We play better against tough competition and we will be playing three very competitive teams this weekend," he said.
This weekend, Duke has a chance to prove it is a well-conditioned team. More importantly, the Blue Devils, already regarded as the top team in the Atlantic Coast Conference, can show that they are ready to compete with some of the best competition that the NCAA has to offer.
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