This year, it seems the only thing the volleyball team has been consistent at is playing inconsistently.
So it was no surprise when the team finished 1-2 over Fall Break, beating Virginia in four games before being swept by Maryland and No. 5 Penn State.
Against the Cavaliers on Friday, Duke put together what head coach Linda Grensing called the team's best effort all year. The Blue Devils lost the first game of the match 15-11, but managed to come back to capture the next three, 15-12, 17-15 and 15-6.
"Each person took care of their job," sophomore setter Kristen Campbell said. "Once we got that done, we weren't concerned about individual things. That's something we had been working on."
On Saturday, the team traveled to College Park, Md., to face the Terrapins. But the self-confident squad that bested Virginia was nowhere to be found as the Blue Devils fell to Maryland 15-4, 15-10 and 15-8. The Blue Devil team that lost to Maryland played with a lack of intensity and was unsure of itself, nearly the opposite of the squad that faced Virginia.
"It was like our team didn't show up," freshman middle blocker Chrissie Lukasiewicz said. "We were timid, very hesitant. We were looking at each other instead of going for the ball."
Campbell said once the Terrapins got a string of points together, Duke became unfocused and didn't get the fundamentals done. That led to the Blue Devils eventual demise.
The final game of the break came Tuesday against nationally-ranked Penn State. Although the Blue Devils lost in three straight games, 15-9, 15-5, 15-9, Grensing saw some obvious improvement from the Maryland debacle.
"I think we did play well against Penn State," Grensing said. "We did some of the things we wanted to do. We wanted to have more aces than service errors and we wanted to have a hitting percentage around .250. We accomplished some good things which are significant to us."
Campbell said the team did a good job of staying in the game, even when the Nittany Lions jumped out to a big lead.
"They would get a run of points and get ahead, but then we would get a side-out and chip away at their lead," she said.
The biggest question the Blue Devils need to answer is why they still cannot play consistently. The team is frustrated that it has been unable to play well every game, but cannot find an answer to its problem.
"I really don't know why we're so inconsistent," Lukasiewicz said. "We are deep into the heart of the season and we're still inconsistent. We should be a lot more leveled out."
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