The Duke volleyball team had a rocky weekend.
The Blue Devils, now 4-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and 5-8 overall, battled conference foes Florida State and North Carolina. Duke beat the Seminoles 3-0 at home on Friday but lost to the Tar Heels 3-2 in Chapel Hill Saturday.
The Blue Devils faced a tough non-conference schedule at the beginning of the season, opening with a 1-7 record before facing a league team. The team has been able to rebound in conference play, as it entered the weekend with a 3-0 conference record.
"The beginning of the season was kind of disappointing," senior outside hitter Virginia Hall said. "But then once we started building up ACC wins, that helped us get more confidence, and we just realized that we can beat these teams."
Duke easily downed Florida State in three games, 15-1, 15-7, 15-12.
"With the information we had on Florida State, we did a really good job of doing the things that were Florida State's weaknesses--knowing where the weaknesses were and attacking the ball in those weak areas," head coach Linda Grensing said.
After sailing through the first game in just 12 minutes, the second and third games were a little more difficult for the Blue Devils.
"Going into the second game, we should have been more the aggressor on Florida State," Grensing said. "But volleyball is such a momentum game that you almost know the team that lost like that will come out with fire . . . We did a good job of stopping that fire."
The Blue Devils fell behind early in both the second and third games, but held Florida State's surge.
In the second game, Florida State scored first. Duke came back to tie the score at 7-7 and took over the game, not allowing the Seminoles to score again. In the third game, Florida State initially led 6-0. A kill by Hall got the Blue Devils back into the game. They later tied the match at 11 and allowed the Seminoles just one more score before ending the match.
Hall had a good game against the Seminoles, racking up 10 kills and one service ace. Freshman middle blocker Megan Irvine had 15 kills, four digs and two service aces. Sophomore outside hitter Maureen Reindl also helped to spark the Blue Devils, notching 11 kills, 17 digs and three service aces.
After smashing FSU, the Blue Devils headed into Chapel Hill on a high.
"If there's any game in which we are going to play our best, it's UNC right now," Hall said following the Florida State game.
But the Blue Devils fell to the Tar Heels in five games, 10-15, 6-15, 15-5, 15-9, 16-14. Just as it had against Florida State, Duke went out and played aggressively. This time, however, the Blue Devils allowed the momentum to change.
"We were not playing at the same level as [Friday]," Hall said. "We lost our momentum and never got it back. Instead, we never recognized it and stayed at the same level and didn't pick it up a step to do what it takes to win."
The Blue Devils as a whole had 33 errors on attack against the Tar Heels--compared to Friday's 14 errors. Despite the tough play of Reindl, Irvine and Hall--who combined for 46 kills--the Blue Devils couldn't conquer the Tar Heels.
"There was a serious shift in momentum--we lost our focus," Irvine said. "We weren't concentrating in the last three games. We lost our intensity."
With nine ACC games still on its schedule, Duke hopes to use this weekend's loss to North Carolina as a stepping stone to improve as a team.
"We're still learning," freshman middle blocker Chrissie Lukasiewicz said. "We're a young team and we've played a lot of five-game matches, which should help in the long run when we have to play tougher teams in the conference."
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