"Wow, I need to catch my breath. What a wild night!" Blue Devils' coach Jolene Nagel gasped, just moments after her team's five-game marathon victory against ACC rival Clemson.
Nobody ever promised the Blue Devils' volleyball team an easy road in the heart of conference play, but still, the squad took the road of most resistance.
Plagued by streaky play all night, Duke (13-4, 3-1 in the ACC) needed all of its available resources to fend off the Clemson Tigers (7-10, 2-3), one of the conference's weaker teams this season.
Duke found itself jammed into a must-win position after collapsing in the third game. Up 10-6, the Blue Devils seemingly forgot to play the rest of the game, dropping nine out of the last 10 points scored. After winning that game 15-11, the Tigers forced Duke, trailing one game to two, to stare an upset defeat squarely in the eyes.
The Blue Devils, however, would have none of it.
Led by sophomore standout Jill Sonne, who finished the match with 18 digs on top of a team-high 20 kills, Duke climbed its way back into contention with a dominating 15-9 effort in the fourth, setting the stage for the decisive fifth game.
The Blue Devils entered the fifth set still haunted by their five-game loss to Virgina earlier in the conference season. However, with its inspired play in the final game, Duke erased any lingering doubts about its ability to finish.
The Blue Devils elevated their defensive effort and had just enough offensive firepower left to snatch the game and, in turn, the match, three games to two.
"If we played the game we are capable of all the way through, it would have been a much shorter night," Sonne said. "Wins are wins, though. It was a great experience to win in five and show the conference what we are capable of in close matches."
Despite their eventual victory, the Blue Devils failed to capitalize on numerous opportunites that would have led to a less stressful win. Duke squandered late leads in both the first and the third games, as it seemingly failed to muster up its typical level of intensity.
For long stretches of play, the Blue Devils watched their serves-an unhealthy 18 of them at that-hit the tape and their passes drift away from the setter's waiting hands.
Then, seemingly unprovoked, Duke received a sudden injection of life, rattling off a string of points against its outmatched opponent.
"I believe we were just tired tonight," Nagel said. "It is a big study week, and we also have three conference games this week. Nevertheless, it was very important for us to get it done when we absolutely had to. We played well with our back to the wall."
Emerging victorious in hotly contested conference matchups like tonight's is a skill that this team needs to hone as it attempts to claim its first conference championship and NCAA tournament bid since 1994.
If they want to contend as the season progresses, the Blue Devils must have the ability to squeeze out wins even when they do not play to the height of their capabilities.
Victories like tonight's build team confidence for future games when the level of play may not be as crisp as desired.
"I always tell the team, 'Move like you should on every point... pass like you should pass, kill like you should kill,'" Nagel said. "Basically, I want them to be perfect at all times. That might be a little too much to ask though, don't you think?"
Never hurts to ask.
Notes: Duke returns to action Friday night at 7:30 p.m., when it hosts Georgia Tech in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
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