The volleyball team served up a strong defense against conference opponent Georgia Tech last night but did not muster enough strength to pull out a win.
The Blue Devils (5-6, 1-2 in the ACC) fought against repeated stagnation and fell 3-1 to the Yellow Jackets (12-3, 2-0) in an unusually warm Cameron Indoor Stadium. The four-game match was exceptionally long, lasting nearly two-and-a-half hours.
In the opening game, Duke let forth a burst of intensity and unleashed a mighty offense that stunned Georgia Tech in a 15-5 win. Junior Jami Ediger, who led the team with 15 kills overall, led a five-point rally in the middle of the first game, which gave Duke enough momentum to carry the shortest round of the match.
Duke started the second game with a 3-1 lead, but side-outs stagnated play as Georgia Tech made up the difference, tying the game at 3-3. Duke built several more leads which repeatedly evaporated into ties. Late in the game, the Yellow Jackets tied it up at 11 and then stung the Blue Devils with a final push to win 15-12.
"I feel like we let up in intensity," first-year head coach Jolene Nagel said. "We weren't able to do what we wanted to do offensively out there, so I feel like that made a big difference. It was so hot; every time the players played the ball, it really took its toll mentally and I think we need to be more mentally tough in order to not let that pull us down."
Neither Duke nor Georgia Tech showed signs of letting up in the third game, as the Yellow Jackets took an early 3-0 lead. Duke aggressively fought back, but never caught up as Georgia Tech went on to a 15-8 win.
"I think [that during the] lulls... we needed to use that time to make sure we weren't losing focus at all and I think we did a little bit," Nagel said. "And I think that we normally block better than we did tonight. We didn't seem to block-blocking is one of our strengths-and we weren't blocking that many balls."
In the final game, Duke took an early two-point lead with renewed vigor. However, repeated intervals of side-outs after side-outs wore down that lead until Georgia Tech broke the lull and took a 9-5 lead. Duke cut the lead to one, but as the match wore on, Georgia Tech broke through and pulled ahead to a 12-9 lead. After another long, draining scoreless bout, Duke failed to break through and the Yellow Jackets took the match 15-10.
"I just think we need to learn from this-what we went through tonight," Nagel said. "I think we were very capable of being successful this evening, but we broke down in our pass a little bit and I don't think we were where we needed to be mentally."
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