By her senior year in high school, freshman volleyball player Chrissie Lukasiewicz was sought after by more than 50 colleges. She had received thousands of pieces of mail, all of them telling her why one school was better than another.
Still, the letter she remembers most is the one with a Durham postmark she received her junior year of high school.
"When I got that letter, I was so excited," Lukasiewicz said. "[Then-Blue Devil assistant coach] Tricia Hopkins was recruiting me, and I saw her at a lot of my tournaments.
"Duke was always my top choice. No matter who I talked to about Duke, they always said good things about it."
Even though she felt she wanted Duke, she wasn't sure if the feeling was mutual. Lukasiewicz recalls one incident her junior year, when she returned from a tournament with lots of messages on her answering machine. She rewound the tape, and listened to various college coaches praising her efforts in the tourney. The messages ended. There was no message from the Blue Devils.
Lukasiewicz was heartbroken. A week later, she received the call from her dream school, and her confidence in their liking her was rejuvenated.
Lukasiewicz had planned to make four visits to schools her senior year. Her first stop was in Durham, where she instantly took a liking to the school and her future teammates. Her next stop was to Colorado. Yet after that visit, she canceled her other two trips to Ohio State and Oregon State. There was no doubt in her mind that she was going to be a future Blue Devil.
Now, the 6-foot middle blocker from Irvine, Calif., is a big part of the rebuilding process the Blue Devils are enduring this season.
"Chrissie plays an important role for us," head coach Linda Grensing said. "She is one of our highest percentage hitters. She's very efficient, usually, in her hitting. She plays a big role for us because typically when she gets set she kills the ball, which is important because it creates things for the other hitters.
"You focus a block on you when you go up, and that kind of frees up the other hitters. I think that's important."
Ironically, Lukasiewicz began playing volleyball out of peer pressure. She first encountered the sport in eighth grade in Physical Education. When a few of her friends decided they wanted to start playing club volleyball, she decided to join them. At that point in time, she never envisioned the sport would earn her a college scholarship.
"I jumped right into it, not knowing what I was getting myself into," Lukasiewicz said.
She played volleyball for both her club and high school teams throughout her prep career. During her junior and senior seasons, she was a member of the prestigious Nike team at the Orange County Volleyball Club. Current Blue Devil teammate Kristen Campbell was her Nike teammate her first year on that squad.
"We both endured Orange County Volleyball Club together, so it's a tie between us that brings us together," Lukasiewicz said. "We have something in common we can talk about."
Grensing cited Lukasiewicz's strong background in club volleyball as essential in helping her make an immediate impact for the Blue Devils.
"She comes from a solid club background," Grensing said of Lukasiewicz's experience. "I think that solid club background has really helped her come into a good quality program and be gung ho about stepping up to some responsibilities."
Lukasiewicz's club experience with Campbell wasn't the Californian's main link to Duke. She spoke with various members of the Duke squad, including former Blue Devil Ashley Wacholder at a tournament at the University of California-Davis, about the possibility of joining the team.
Wacholder told Lukasiewicz that the departure of herself and three other seniors would leave huge gaps in the starting lineup, meaning more playing time for any freshman that signed with Duke.
"That got me really excited," Lukasiewicz said. "I knew I would not sit a lot and get playing time right away. I was excited about playing. But I knew they were recruiting other people, and that we'd have to duke it out on the court to fill the starting position."
Coming to Durham, Lukasiewicz has had to make a variety of adjustments. First, she's thousands of miles from home. True, Lukasiewicz could have stayed in California and played volleyball for a college team in her home state. But that's not her style. She envisioned college as a chance to move away from the West Coast. She saw going to Duke as an adventure, a chance to explore.
Still, her pioneering spirit doesn't make it any easier to think that your friends and family are far away.
She combats the homesickness with the wonders of e-mail, but technology has yet to allow her parents to watch her in action via the computer. Instead, she has local relatives call California and give SportsCenter-like updates.
The other problem Lukasiewicz faced was losing. Her senior year of high school, her club team captured the finals of an under-18 tournament, defeating the junior Nike team.
Yet at the beginning of this season, the Blue Devils suffered though a dreadful losing string, winning just one game of their first eight. Still, Lukasiewicz has managed to find something positive about that awful start.
"It was tough to lose in the sense that I like to win," she said. "When you lose, it's disappointing, but its also to be expected.
"Starting off with a 1-7 record makes you want to work harder. You learn a lot about yourself. There's no place to go but up."
The same can be said for Lukasiewicz's volleyball future. She has been a big part of the Blue Devils' rejuvenation after their horrid start, and is expected to play a big role in her next three years. But the humble Lukasiewicz isn't keen on setting high future goals.
"You always have the dream of being freshman of the year," she said. "I'm just happy I can be a team player."
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