The last time the Duke volleyball team won the ACC championship, Grant Hill had just taken the basketball team to the NCAA Finals. It has been seven years since the Blue Devils have won a regular-season conference championship and they waited until the last moments of game five against Wake Forest to clinch their first-place finish.
North Carolina gave Duke the opportunity to win the ACC by losing to Florida State Friday night. The loss put the Tar Heels one half game back behind the Blue Devils.
Duke began game one at Winston-Salem, N.C., looking like a team that did not deserve to win the ACC championship, falling 30-16 to the Demon Deacons and hitting a lowly .121 average. Their decisions on the court were questionable and sophomore Krista Dill said this may have been attributed to added pressure after the UNC loss Friday.
"We came out and everyone was flustered," Dill said. "Our fundamentals weren't there and we weren't making good decisions on the court."
After a short break, the Blue Devils won the second frame easily, capitalizing on Wake Forest's mistakes en route to a 30-18 win. Duke improved its hitting percentage to .429 while the Demon Deacons fell to .056 in a lackluster performance. Sophomore setter Arielle Linderman, who had 37 assists and 13 digs, knew her opponent gave the Blue Devils the second game with several errors.
"In game one, we made all the mistakes, and in game two, Wake made all the mistakes," Linderman said. "It was like we reversed roles."
To start the third game, Duke and Wake Forest played evenly, but the Demon Deacons used a late surge to beat the Blue Devils 30-24 and take a 2-1 lead. Between games, Duke regrouped and knew it had to win the next two games or else it would tie UNC for the ACC championship.
"We all knew it was the last game of the season and we could win the ACCs," Dill said. "We put ourselves in this position throughout conference play. It wasn't just this one match that determines it."
The fourth frame of the night played very similar to game two for Duke, who once again hit well and used Wake Forest's mental lapses to its advantage. After a 30-21 win, the match shifted to a fifth and final game that is played to 15. Duke came out very aggressive and jumped ahead of Wake Forest, using Jill Sonne's team-high 14 kills to propel the team to a 15-6 victory.
For now, the Blue Devils can savor the taste of victory, but the ACC tournament stands ahead of them and that championship is yet another goal for the team who still has to beat UNC this season. Linderman knows there are some skeptics who are not sure whether her team deserves its first-place seeding in next weekend's tournament.
"After losing to UNC twice in the regular season some people will say OShould Duke really be in first place?'" Linderman said. "We want to go out and beat UNC next week to show we deserve to be first."
As for North Carolina faltering against Florida State, many Duke players were not surprised of the outcome, but rather that the Tar Heels lost in three straight games. UNC's loss Friday was an opportunity for Jolene Nagel's squad to complete the first of three team goals.
"We're so excited," Nagel said. "It was an entire team effort. We're very excited to secure the number one seed in the ACC tournament."
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