On the heels of four consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference titles, Duke volleyball opened the Linda Grensing era with an uncharacteristic 1-2 mark.
The Blue Devils, 24-6 a year ago, began this season with a four-match loss to the 29th-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes on Friday night before rebounding to beat DePaul in straight sets on Saturday afternoon. The Blue Devils folded in Saturday's nightcap, however, falling to Georgetown after leading two sets to none.
Grensing, the first-year head coach of the Blue Devils, blamed the collapse against the Hoyas on the team's inexperience.
"We're a young team and we couldn't get focused," Grensing said. "No one on our team has had significant court experience. Kristen [Campbell] and Maureen Reindl have played, but they've never had to carry the load . . . we kept looking for someone else to take the load when we needed to step up and do it ourselves."
For the past four seasons, Duke has been able to look to 1993 ACC Player of the Year Ashley Wacholder and 1994 ACC Player of the Year Adrian Nicol in crunch time. Both have now graduated--along with two other starters--leaving the Blue Devils with only Campbell and Reindl as returning starters.
Without anyone ready to take up the slack yet for Duke, the squad which advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in the past two NCAA tournaments drops to 1-2 for only the second time in 12 years. "We're a young team and we have a long way to go," said junior middle blocker Liz Neuhaus, who is one of only two juniors on the roster to complement lone senior Virginia Hall. "It could take until the middle or the end of the season before we start clicking, but hopefully it will take less than that.
"But we do have a lot of talent. It's really just a matter of overcoming our inexperience. I think we'll be a completely different team in one month, and be even better in two months."
The Blue Devils hope that more experience will help them avoid collapses like against Georgetown.
Duke took a 2-0 lead against the Hoyas, including a ferocious comeback in the first game. The Blue Devils fell behind 12-2, but came roaring back to win 15-12 behind the play of Hall. She had five kills and two service aces in the comeback.
Duke also came back from a 7-2 deficit in the second game to win 15-7. But then the Blue Devils fell apart, losing the next two games 15-12 and 15-4. Duke had a .000 hitting percentage in the fourth game.
The Blue Devils tried to rally in the deciding fifth game but came up just short, losing 17-15 as the lead continually changed hands.
"There are going to be ups and downs this year," Grensing said. "This match could be good for us if we can react differently next time we're in this type of situation. It could be a good kick in the seat for us because it burns in your mind and you don't want it to happen again. You do everything that you can to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Duke was a completely different team in its Saturday afternoon match, sweeping past DePaul. Reindl led the team with her 11 kills to go with four service aces. Freshman Megan Irvine added 10 kills and Campbell had 30 assists. Irvine also paced Duke with two solo blocks and five block assists.
The Blue Devils also played well in their match against Iowa, losing to the veteran Hawkeyes in four games.
"Iowa is a decent team and they're back with the exact same team that made the NCAAs last year," Grensing said. "For a young team, we did a nice job of staying with them. We controlled the ball well against them.
"It's not bad when you lose to a ranked team and you lose because of their strengths, not your weaknesses. Iowa was just a better team."
Jennifer Webb led the Hawkeyes with 15 kills and four block assists. Katy Fawbush added 12 kills and 13 digs.
Reindl again paced Duke with 13 kills and 21 digs. Freshman Chrissie Lukasiewicz added three aces to go with her team-high .600 hitting percentage (six kills, no errors).
But Lukasiewicz was the only bright spot for Duke's serving game, as the Blue Devils totaled only five aces versus their 16 service errors. Iowa, on the other hand, had 12 aces and only nine errors.
If the freshmen continue to shine as they did over the weekend, things could be looking up for Duke in the near future. Both Irvine and Lukasiewicz saw extensive playing time, performing well at times.
"There is no place else to go but up," Lukasiewicz said of her team. ``We'll keep pushing through the practices and learn from our experience [Saturday] night. But we need to prove it on the court, not just talk about it."
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