The Blue Devils drowned a boatload of Pirates last night at the women's volleyball game. Cameron Indoor Stadium jumped last night as Duke (4-3) took out a largely successful Eastern Carolina (6-2) team in three straight games.
"We've been working really hard in practice this week," said Krista Dill, who finished with another outstanding tally of 17 kills. "We knew we had to prepare for this weekend's tournament. The key words in practices were 'intensity' and 'consistency.'"
Those concepts were undeniably the backbone of the Blue Devils' success against the Pirates. For the first time this season, Duke's playing was intense for all three games which allowed them to build steadily on its momentum.
The Blue Devils started off strong with a close-to-impenetrable defense and accurate digs.
Tassy Rufai had another tough defensive game with eight digs in the first game which allowed Duke to set up their powerful hitters. Both Rufai and freshman Tealle Hunkus were able to slam down back-to-back kills mid-court where Eastern Carolina's collapsing defense was unable to even touch the ball.
After taking the first game 30-23, the Blue Devils ran away with the dominance they had worked so hard to establish. Whereas in Duke's last six matchups they had a tendency to ease up on a most grateful opponent, the Blue Devils were finally able to carry over their intensity from their first game to hand the Pirates an even more severe beating in the second game.
"Volleyball is a game of momentum," head coach Jolene Nagel said. "I was happy to see how we executed plays tonight. We've been working a lot on focus and playing our game."
There didn't seem to be a place on the court where there was not a Duke defensive player. After the third service of the game, Eastern Carolina hit to four out of the six positions--the three back positions and a tip that landed in front of the attack line--and all four shots were gracefully recovered until the Blue Devils set-up Rufai for a kill.
The Pirates would not be given an opportunity to recover for the rest of the game. Duke pulled farther and farther away with aggressive attacks from freshmen Pixie Levanas and Nana Meriwether. Levanas nailed five consecutive short serves from which Eastern Carolina could not recover, and took the score to game point. Dill and Hunkus, a wall-like duo up at the net, blocked the next Pirate attack to win the game 30-17.
"Neither [Hunkus nor Meriwether] are playing like freshmen," Nagel stated. "They're both doing a good job of making big plays for us. Tealle came off the bench in the third game and got a kill right off the bat and then got a block to end the game. They've really impressed us. It's hard for young players to come in and do that."
Even Duke players who had not seen a lot of action this year were on. In the absence of most of their starters in the third game, the team's second-string was able to hold its own--Eastern Carolina was never able to run away with a lead the way the Blue Devils had in the previous two games. For the Pirates, sophomores Pam Ferris and Erica Wilson were finally able to put down kills recording a match-total of seven and 12, respectively. Wilson had two especially crucial kills at the end of the game to push the teams into the thirties. But Dill and Meriwether were able jump-start Duke's momentum again with Dill's aggressive cross-court attacks--she had two kills at the end of the game--along with Hunkus, who finished the game as her coach described. The Blue Devils took the game 36-34 without having to re-enter their starting front-line attack.
Hunkus finished with an impressive total of 12 kills, heavily contributing to the Blue Devils' final team-tally of 56 kills--21 more than Eastern Carolina.
Duke still has a long road ahead of them, beginning with a trip to Wisconsin this weekend for the Inntowner Invitational, where they will go head-to-head with Iowa and Wisconsin. Last night's win was crucial for the confidence they will need to take with them on their travels in the Midwest.
"We've been lucky to be able to see a lot of kids play this year," Nagel said. "There are a few things in our offense that I saw tonight that I think we can play with this weekend."
"We have the advantage this weekend," Dill said in conjunction with her coach's optimism about this weekend. "We're playing teams we should be playing to reach our goals. Tonight was great... Each match is a stepping stone towards the ACC championship."
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