RALEIGH -- The Wolfpack came out in full force against the Blue Devils on a ghoulish Halloween evening, and despite a massive comeback, the Duke volleyball team dropped a 3-2 contest to N.C. State in Reynolds Coliseum Tuesday.
For the past few matches, Duke (6-14, 5-5 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) has started off strong, but dropped its intensity level and has not been able to pull off a win. The Blue Devils again charged out of the gates quickly on Tuesday, taking the first game 15-11. Almost as if planned, though, the team handed the second and third games right over to the Wolfpack.
"Obviously anytime that you beat somebody in the first game, they're going to step up their level of play to come back at you that next game," head coach Linda Grensing said. "The situation that we get in is when they step up, and we feel a little bit of pressure, we don't respond to it. We've struggled with there being good leadership responding to that pressure. That's part of what we're not doing."
Those second and third games were full of mishits and mistakes by the Blue Devils. N.C. State registered one kill after another, and took control of the match after downing Duke 15-5, 15-4 in the second and third games, respectively. The Wolfpack notched a .486 team hitting percentage in the third game.
The Blue Devils were once again in the familiar position of being behind 2-1 after the third game, but this time, Duke would not go down easily.
"I think what I said [after the third game] is they need to take responsibility for what's going on instead of looking to somebody else to solve the problem," Grensing said. "They need to make sure that they take responsibility, they step it up individually and they focus on the team kind of stepping up so each person doesn't look at somebody else to play that ball or block that ball. I think they took that challenge and they dealt with it."
Duke came out on fire in the fourth game, but the Wolfpack was still attacking. N.C. State took an 8-3 lead before the Blue Devils came charging back. Freshman Megan Irvine tied the score at 10-all with a decisive kill. Irvine registered 12 kills in the match. The teams traded countless sideouts during the next few points, with the Blue Devils eventually outlasting the Pack, 15-13.
"One of the things that we've struggled with is if we start out doing well, and then we lose, for example, a game or two, from then on we don't come back," Grensing said. "And so for us, we've accomplished a pretty big goal because we got right back into it. We came back and we fought and won that fourth game. In a lot of ways, even though we didn't win the match, that's a huge step for us."
Even though the Blue Devils finally succeeded and stepped up their play in that crucial fourth game, N.C. State would not give up. The fifth game started off just as the fourth game ended--neither team seemed to have a clear advantage over its opponent. Long rallies typified the match-winning game, and the largest lead was a three-point margin when the Wolfpack was up 5-2. At 13-all, the crowd was on its feet, trying to cheer N.C. State to victory.
A controversial call by the officials gave the Wolfpack its first match point at 14-13, but a kill by Duke senior Virginia Hall, who joined sophomore Maureen Reindl and junior Liz Neuhaus as three Blue Devils who each notched 16 kills for the Blue Devils, knotted the score once again. Another kill by Reindl, who led the team with 23 digs, gave Duke match point at 15-14.
The noise of the Wolfpack fans grew louder, as N.C. State battled back for another match point at 16-15. The Blue Devils could not come up with any more heroics, falling 17-15 in the fifth game.
"It's disappointing not to win," Grensing said. "I don't really enjoy the loss, but I think the one thing you take away and you build on is the fact that you accomplished something that not only is a hard goal to accomplish, but with that accomplishment, you're going to win the next time you're in that situation. If you get over that hurdle and you know how to deal with it, you're going to be OK down the road."
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