The women's volleyball team begins its season against a pair of nationally-ranked opponents this weekend as it travels to East Lansing, Michigan for the Goff/Michigan State University Volleyball Classic.
The Blue Devils, coming off a 15-12 campaign in which they finished third in the Atlantic Coast Conference, have been selected this year's favorites to finish first in the ACC by the league's coaches. The Michigan State tournament will provide Duke with an immediate chance to put that reputation to the test. Blue Devil coach Linda Grensing is looking forward to the tournament as a measuring stick of her team's progress since the start of preseason play in mid-August.
"Within Friday night and Saturday morning, we will have played two top-20 teams," Grensing said. "You find out what you're made of right off the bat. I think that the biggest thing we need to do is to go into those matches expecting to be competitive, expecting to go after a win. If we fall short in terms of getting the win, at least push it to five games."
The Blue Devils' test begins tonight at 7 p.m. as they take on the host Spartans. Michigan State boasts a No. 6 national ranking in the USA Today Coaches poll after finishing last season with a 26-7 overall record and an 18-2 mark in Big Ten play-good enough for a share of the conference title with Penn State University.
Leading the way for the Spartans is senior outside hitter Veronica Morales. A three-time All-Big Ten performer, Morales is just 158 kills shy of the MSU career record. The left-handed native of Argentina is also only the fifth Spartan ever to record both 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in her career.
Junior outside hitter Jenna Wrobel joins Morales on the preseason All-Big Ten team. She has led MSU in kills each of her first two years, averaging over 4.5 kills per game both years. She has also recorded over 600 digs her first two years.
Things don't get any easier for the Blue Devils on Saturday morning, when they battle No. 15 Southern California. The Trojans saw their postseason dreams come to an end in the NCAA Pacific Regional semifinals last year, falling to eventual champion Stanford. USC finished third in the Pac-10, perennially the nation's top conference, and accumulated a 21-9 overall record in 1996.
The Trojans' top returnees are junior middle blocker Jasmina Marinkovic and outside hitter Jennifer Kessy. Marinkovic earned All-Pac-10 first team honors last season as she led USC in hitting percentage, kills, solo blocks and block assists. Kessy, also a junior, was an All-Pac-10 honorable mention selection last year and led the Trojans in digs and attacks.
Duke wraps up play Saturday evening at 6 p.m. against unranked Xavier. The Musketeers have a solid tradition despite their lack of national recognition, having finished above .500 each of their past seven seasons under coach Floyd Deaton. Xavier finished last year with a 21-14 overall mark and an 11-9 record in the Atlantic 10, good for fifth place.
Last year the Blue Devils ventured to Gainesville to start the season and took then-No. 1 Florida to five games before losing, providing Duke players with valuable lessons about their abilities. Grensing is hoping for similar insight from this year's opening trip.
"It's going to be good for us to learn that we can't afford to force things and make errors, but that we've got to be patient, play one point at a time and let things take of themselves that way," she said.
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