The volleyball team cranked up the heat at last weekend's Duke Classic in Cameron Indoor Stadium, and tonight the Blue Devils have to play in a new home gym while engineers attempt to cool the historic facility down.
Riding a five-match winning streak for the first time in the two-season tenure of coach Jolene Nagel, Duke (6-2) will combat Campbell (2-6) tonight at Brodie Gym on East Campus. The move was necessitated by the implementation of the new air conditioning system in Cameron, a process that forced fans to sit behind the action during last weekend's games rather than have the opportunity to watch from the typical sideline bleachers.
"I think it'll be interesting to see how it goes over on East," Nagel said. "It will be fun and exciting to play against a team that is better than they were last year. At this point, our team feels like they don't even care where they play, they just want to go out and play."
The temporary transition to the all-freshman campus shouldn't take too much adaptation for the Blue Devils, who practice daily in the gym.
But if there is one thing that Duke will have to adjust to, it will be playing as the favorite for so many matches in a row. It has been a long time since the volleyball program reached the point where it can expect to win so often.
Much of the turnaround-early as it may be in the 2000 campaign-can be accredited to Nagel, now in her second year at the helm of the Blue Devils.
The same movement has begun with the Campbell Camels, although the results have yet to prove as positive. First-year coach Perri Hankins is trying to reverse her team's losing ways and Nagel, possibly conscious of her own team's 4-8 start last season, knows it wouldn't be prudent to discount Duke's opponent simply because of its record.
"I think that they're a little bit more competitive and from what I've seen, they're an improved team from last season," Nagel said.
So far, the team has been bolstered by the stellar play of younger players Jill Sonne and Krista Dill as well as veterans Ashley Harris and Pamela Gottfred. But with so much recent success, the Blue Devils' practices have continued to focus on eliminating the mistakes that were made a week and a half ago during Duke's two losses.
If the energy level that has been present in the East Campus Gym the past couple weeks shows up on that floor tonight, that winning streak will likely hit six.
"The team has been working hard and the losses we did take, we've learned from," Nagel said. "I think those lessons are going to help us reach our potential sooner than last year. Everyone is playing solid and doing their job well, and that's what I'm excited about."
Tonight's contest-the fifth consecutive home match for the Blue Devils-begins at 7:30 p.m. It will be Duke's last opportunity to play at home until the team returns to Cameron in two weeks to play host to North Carolina A&T.
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