Based on Friday night's volleyball game in Cameron Indoor Stadium, a bystandard might have already throught it was basketball season.
The volleyball team outlasted conference rival Maryland 3-2 (32-34, 30-27, 30-22, 25-30, 15-13), in a five-game thriller at Cameron Indoor Stadium Friday night. The Blue Devils (14-5, 2-2 in the ACC) used improved blocking, digs and a strong offense to overcome the Terrapins (11-7, 0-3), who had four players with double figures in kills.
All five games were characterized by intense, back-and-forth play that saw numerous lead changes and extended volleys. Head coach Jolene Nagel said that she was very pleased with the performance of her Duke team under pressure.
"It was a really good win for our team," Nagel said. "We had to maintain intensity throughout the entire match, especially because we didn't come out strong in game one. Of course, we still have some things that we want to work on to make sure that we can be a stronger team. This is a great win for us in a competitive setting."
Junior Katie Gilman, who had 27 kills in the victory--her previous career best was 11--sparked Duke's offense to end the match with an overall hitting percentage of .214,
However, Gilman said the entire team came ready to play.
"Everyone came out here tonight with intensity," she said. "We feed off each other. That's how we're going to win, when everyone comes out fired up."
Duke dominated the beginning of the first game, going on a 5-0 run midway through that eventually led Maryland to call a timeout with the score at 20-12. The Terrapins scored four straight points immediately after play resumed and fought back to tie the score at 29, before taking the game, 34-32.
The Blue Devils came back and won the next two games on the strength of several key blocks and drilled spikes. However, Maryland countered in the fourth game with good blocking of their own, and the match went to a deciding fifth, where Duke finally put away the stubborn Terrapins.
The win, combined with the Blue Devils' earlier defeat of Virginia Thursday, helped inspire a new sense of confidence in a team that went 0-2 in its first two conference games.
"We knew, starting out with the two losses to begin ACC play, that this weekend was going to be huge for us," said senior outside hitter Jill Sonne, whose eight kills against Maryland left her one shy of 1,000 kills in her career at Duke. "We had to come out and play as hard as we could and get our confidence back...so that we can go into North Carolina and N.C. State with some positive energy."
The game against the Tar Heels Thursday will be the next major hurdle on the conference schedule, and the players recognize what needs to be done to prepare.
"I think, even though we did have some big blocks, we need to work on our timing for our blocks a little bit and just keep working on our defense, because that will never be good enough," Sonne said.
Nagel agreed that defense and blocking will be the two skills that the Blue Devils will focus on in practice this week. That attention for detail has been a key element of practices all season, Gilman said.
"We break it down and do all the little things," she said. "Everybody has their name on a list with goals, and you practice with a purpose."
Duke also carries this mentality to its games, and as Nagel pointed out, the team has to be careful not to look too far ahead.
"Every match in the ACC is so competitive," Nagel said. "We've really got to be sure that we're playing the match that we're in-playing for the moment."
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