While most teams enjoy returning home after a long road trip, the volleyball team might have been a little reluctant to come back to Durham.
After beginning the season with seven road wins and perfect 8-0 record, the Blue Devils boarded the bus from Greenville-where they had crushed ECU-to come back to Durham and ready for the Duke Classic Friday and Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
As a homecoming gift, Duke will see American (5-3) on the other side of the net at 7:30 p.m. Friday before going against No. 18 UC-Santa Barbara (6-0) at 10 a.m. Saturday and No. 12 Wisconsin (4-1) at 7:30 p.m. that night.
"I'm pretty excited about it. We have four great teams playing this weekend" said head coach Jolene Nagel, who added that this was probably the strongest field the volleyball team had hosted since bringing Stanford here in the mid 90s. "It means a lot to our program. We're doing well, but we need to get better if we want to be one of the best programs in the country."
In its first game, Duke, which is riding a 13-game regular season winning streak dating back to last year, will have to deal with a red-hot American squad. After starting the year 0-3, the perennial Patriot League champs have won five straight.
The Eagles are led by junior Karla Kucerkova, who currently leads American with 102 kills. Kucerkova, who was last season's Patriot League Player of the Year, was named to the all-tournament teams at both the Louisville Classic and the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore Classic this season.
"They almost always win the Patriot league and make it to the NCAA tournament," Nagel said. "They're a very good team, they're very competitive and very scrappy."
In Santa Barbara and Wisconsin, Duke faces its toughest opponents so far this season. Both squads are currently ranked, and with the Blue Devils perpetually threatening to break into the polls, a win over either could catapult Duke into the rankings, something Nagel said was one of her team's goals.
A pair of seniors, Danielle Bauer and Brooker Niles lead the Gauchos. Bauer has tallied 81 kills on the year, while Niles has racked up 230 assists. As a team, Santa Barbara is hitting .363 on the season.
On the other hand, the Badgers are making their first trip back to the Triangle area since picking up their only loss-to North Carolina-Aug. 31. Duke was supposed to play Wisconsin last season, but the match was canceled because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.
"Wisconsin is great," said Nagel, who admitted that she had not had a chance to watch the Badger's tape yet. "They're almost always ranked and they're one of the best programs in the Big Ten.... We can beat all three teams, but it doesn't always correlate that way. The team that's going to win is the one that comes out and is ready to play."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.