The women's volleyball team (24-10) lost to Miami (26-5) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday night in a match in which almost nothing seemed to go right. Competing against the Hurricanes in Madison, Wisc., the Blue Devils lost 30-25, 30-18, 30-20, after taking an early 16-8 lead in game one.
"We were really disappointed with our performance," head coach Jolene Nagel said. "We didn't execute our game plan at allâ_|. We did things that were very uncharacteristic for us. We just weren't ourselves out there, I can tell you that."
With the loss, Duke now stands at 5-9 in NCAA play. The Blue Devils have received three consecutive bids to the tournament. Last year they fell to USC in the second round after beating William and Mary.
The performance was especially disappointing for a team that seemed to have so many things going for it. The Blue Devils had posted the school's best win total since 1994. In the ACC semifinals, they took a game from then-No. 20 Georgia Tech, who would go on to win the ACC championship.
"We're all really disappointed," junior Katie Gilman said. "It hurts to end a season like this after we've played really hard."
After the Blue Devils opened the first game with a 18-6 lead, the Hurricanes responded by scoring seven of the next nine points. Duke held on, opening a 21-16 lead before falling prey to a nine point run by Miami. Duke would bring the score as close as 25-24, but Miami hung on to finish out the game.
"We came out really strong in the first game," junior Arielle Linderman said. "The general feeling on the court was fine, very comfortable, very confident, then they had a run, and all of a sudden the whole feeling on the court changed a lot."
The Blue Devils were out-hit by Miami, who defeated the No. 14-seed Wisconsin Saturday in the second round, the whole way. In game two, they hit .026 en route to losing after they held a 13-12 lead. In game three, they hit just -1.06, which Nagel said was the first time that the Blue Devils had posted a negative hitting percentage this season.
Senior Rachel Vander Griend tallied six kills and five block assists, and senior Josie Weymann led Duke with 14 digs. Gilman led the team with nine kills, yet even she was not pleased with her performance.
"I don't feel like I played well," she said. "I feel like I made too many errors. The kills didn't really mean much to me."
From its current vantage point, Duke mainly hopes to learn a few lessons for next season.
"I hope that this is almost a turning point for our team," Nagel said. "I think that we're capable of more, and I hope this will be part of our growing as a team, to become the team that we want to be."
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