The sign of a true champion is the ability to get right back up after being knocked off of their pedestal. The perennially successful volleyball team faces just that task this season as they attempt to recover from a fifth-place finish in the Atlantic Coast Conference and a 7-18 overall record last year after a string of four straight conference championships and two trips to the Sweet Sixteen.
With very few links to the glory of the previous teams, however, the attitude on this team is not one of returning to greatness, but of creating a new standard of excellence.
"I don't think it's returning; it's more like building," junior Kristen Campbell said. "We're looking at it as more of a new start than returning to something."
This new era in Duke volleyball will begin with a solid core of juniors and seniors who were forced into the spotlight last year after playing supporting roles in 1993 and 1994. Junior co-captain Maureen Reindl is the team's top returner after completing the 1994 campaign at outside hitter with 329 kills and 408 digs, both team highs.
"Maureen is a very quiet leader, but demands a lot of focus and a lot of intensity from her teammates," head coach Linda Grensing said. "She really leads by example."
"If there is ever a bad play, I need to be the one to clean up the play and try and get everyone focused again," Reindl said.
The other captain for the Blue Devils is sophomore middle blocker Megan Irvine who was named to the All-ACC Freshman team last year after leading the team with an 1.2 blocks per game average.
"Megan is maybe a little bit more verbal leader than Maureen is," Grensing said.
Campbell remains a constant in Duke's lineup as she begins her third season at setter. In just two years, she has amassed 2,375 assists, good for fifth in the Blue Devil record books.
"Kristen, being the setter, has to be responsible for a lot of the offense and telling people what to do," Reindl said.
Sophomore middle blocker Chrissie Lukasiewicz provided strong defense inside last year with 1.04 blocks per game and will be looked on to provide the same type of play again this year.
Grensing also mentions senior Liz Neuhaus and junior Jill Van Oort as other players who will provide valuable leadership on the floor. That leaves Duke with a number of leaders, something that should help make this year different from last.
"I think some strong leaders have emerged on the court, which is something we may have been lacking a little bit last year," Campbell said.
"On the floor, we have a couple people who are very quiet leaders and we have some others who are very vocal leaders," Grensing said. "Together they provide a verbal spark or a great play and a lot of verbal emotion after that. I think that is the key to this group-that there is some differences, and when you put them together they make a nice picture."
Another piece of this puzzle is the addition of freshmen Sarah Peifer and Jami Ediger, both of whom started at Florida last weekend. Peifer, an outside hitter, is perhaps the most powerful Blue Devil finisher and is one of the keys to Duke's ball-control-oriented style.
"We've seen a lot of that in practice-she is the best ball handler on the team," Reindl said. "She is really important on serve receive and in our offense and she was very solid and consistent throughout the three matches in Gainesville."
"[All the freshmen] have added a lot of quickness to every aspect of our play and they are all really good team players," Campbell said.
Also new to the Blue Devils this year are assistant coaches Karen Weatherington, from New Mexico, and Tami Peterson, who played at Duke from 1991-94.
"I think having them will give us the opportunity to do more teaching every day," Grensing said. "Karen, as my first assistant, adds some strengths, being a solid player herself as a collegiate. In particular, she does a lot of work with our middle blockers and I think she has done a great job working with that group technically.
"Tami was a player here at Duke, so she brings the tradition of the past programs and links it to where we are with this group of kids."
After opening with the 11th-ranked Gators, the Blue Devils return home for a home stretch that includes No.4 Texas and defending national champion Nebraska.
"Our first three weeks are against opponents that are nationally dominant," Grensing said. "Every one of those teams is at a very high level and for us to play those kinds of teams, which are the types of teams we need to play, at home, gives us an opportunity to make ourselves more competitive as a young team against them. Certainly we would rather play them here than on the road.
"I think that it is important with a young group to get their feet steady on the ground-even though they may be facing some challenging opponents."
"We have three parts to our season and right now we are focused on the non-conference part of our schedule," Reindl said. "We have a lot of the top 20 teams coming up in the next few weeks so we're just looking to be competitive with them right now. Then we should have a lot easier time with the ACC teams after playing this tough competition."
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