The volleyball team went into the weekend well aware of the task at hand.
The Blue Devils were riding high after last weekend's victories over Florida, Purdue and Michigan, and they knew that the potential existed for a letdown when they travelled to Knoxville, Tenn., to take on three unheralded teams -- Tennessee, James Madison, and Purdue -- last Friday and Saturday
All week long the Blue Devils talked about being intense and avoiding a letdown.
After all the talk, Duke still let down.
Friday night, the Blue Devils met an inspired Volunteer squad and came away with a straight set loss, 15-10, 15-8, 16-14.
Duke came back on Saturday to defeat Furman 15-3, 15-11, 15-4, and James Madison 15-3, 15-11, 16-14 to place second in the Lady Vol Classic. The Blue Devils are now 7-2 on the season.
"We tried all week to talk about being up for [Tennessee]," head coach Jon Wilson said. "They hadn't had a great year so far, but it would be their first match at home and they would be up for it. And they were up.
"They played completely out of their heads. We were totally blindsided by them. I expected them to play well, but they careered us, and the coach admitted that."
Duke had beaten the Volunteers last year in straight sets, and after beating Florida -- regarded as the top team in the Southeastern Conference -- Duke was expected to have little trouble with a 4-4 UT squad.
Tennessee came out strong from the beginning, winning the first game 15-10, and the Blue Devils never could completely recover and get into a rhythm.
"We came in here a little overconfident, taking them a little lightly, and we didn't insist on being mentally prepared to play," Wilson said. "They came out so strong it kind of stunned us, and we never really recovered."
Tennessee was led by junior Sonja Thomas, the tournament MVP, who had 19 kills and 12 digs. Sophomore Cissi Lennartsson added 21 kills.
The Blue Devils were led by senior Jen Rohrig, who posted 22 kills, and sophomore Ashley Wacholder, who had 12 kills.
However, Wilson was quick to point out that, while some players had good statistics, it was a complete team loss.
"There's a lot more we could have done [against Tennessee] than we did," Wilson said. "Everybody had a part in it, and it was just like last week's team victories -- this was a team defeat.
"We had some good statistical performances in spots, but everybody made big mental mistakes whether they had good stats or not."
Saturday, the Blue Devils bounced back to get two wins, although the margin of victory versus James Madison was surprisingly close against the 0-9 Dukes.
Junior Adrian Nicol had 25 kills in the two games and sophomore setter Cappy Meyer registered 63 assists for the day.
Although the Tennessee loss was extremely disappointing, it did help bring the Blue Devils back down to earth after the quick start to the season.
"This was a wake-up call, and better now than later," Wilson said. "I prefer to learn from victories and not defeats, but losses do come. Hopefully we did learn that we can't look past anybody."
Duke will now prepare for its Atlantic Coast Conference opener Thursday night at North Carolina. The Blue Devils are two-time defending ACC champions and are hoping to earn another title, but the weekend proved that they still have significant room for improvement.
Coupled with an earlier lopsided loss at Georgia, this weekend's defeat demonstrated Duke's biggest weakness so far this season.
"We're a much better team than we showed, and something we're going to have to get better at is getting up on the road," Wilson said. "There are a lot of teams out there that are good, and we're one of them.
"If we're going to become a championship team, we have to learn how to win on the road."
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