If coach Jolene Nagel intended last night's matchup with North Carolina A & T to be a game of experimentation, she succeeded. While taking a break from ACC play, the Blue Devils were able to expand their skills as a team.
Duke (11-4, 1-1 ACC) used this one-game break from conference play as a ideal opportunity to experiment with a rotation defense for the first time this season. The team was able to take advantage of its competition and try out a number of new plays, which proved to be very helpful for the team.
"It was good because it gave us something different across the net," junior Ashley Harris said, "but it was more effective than practice because there were different people on the other side."
After trailing 2-1 momentarily in their first game, the Blue Devils were able to easily turn it around and claim the game. Duke, warmed up and with a confident win under its belt, executing some of those new plays and defense more effectively in the second game, which the Blue Devils won handily 15-3.
After a slow start in the first two games, North Carolina A&T ignited and put up a fight in the final game. After taking an early 2-0 advantage, the Aggies held off Duke for quite a while, exchanging side-outs that prolonged an otherwise speedy match.
The final game saw a more varied lineup rather than just the starting squad, providing valuable experience for younger team members as Duke prepares to march on through its conference schedule.
Nevertheless, the Blue Devils overcame minor struggles and won the third game 15-7.
Nagel felt her team was able to execute consistently for part of the game, but she said errors prevented the Blue Devils from conduct the best possible points at certain times. She was, however, happy with the way her team played the rotation defense.
"I think they played some good defense but they didn't do a good enough job passing and made a lot of errors," Nagel said.
One of the main things that the team has been trying to focus on over the past few games is forcing errors through tough service. Last night, Duke was plagued once again with service errors.
According to Nagel, there were a lot of missed serves, but some of the winning serves were tougher than they had been in games past.
The Blue Devils did record 11 service aces, but not without 15 service errors in the attempt. Harris led the way to more effective serving for Duke with four service aces, also contributing 10 kills and three digs.
Harris said effective serving has been the focus of recent practices and the team has been working on placing its jump serves and achieving better control overall.
While many of the Blue Devils' errors last night can be attributed to their experimentation with a different defense and an influx of new plays, their general effectiveness was able to compensate for their experimental approach as they maintained a .373 hitting percentage.
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