After losing two straight games to league opponents, the volleyball team (9-17, 5-9 in ACC) will look to gain back some momentum this weekend with back-to-back home games against N.C. State (7-22, 0-14 in ACC) and North Carolina (18-10, 9-5 in ACC) Friday and Saturday nights at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Aside from the obvious weight that every ACC game carries, these final two matches of the regular season take on an additional importance as the Blue Devils seek to revert back to their wining ways and secure a higher seed in the ACC tournament.
"A lot of teams are upsetting each other in the ACC, so everybody's scrambling to get the best seed in the tournament," senior Krista Dill said. "That will definitely come into play this weekend."
Duke is coming off two consecutive ACC loses to Georgia Tech and Clemson. The heartbreaking loss to the Tigers still eats at many of the Blue Devils.
"If you look at the stats against Clemson, we were ahead of them in almost all areas," Dill said. "So obviously it's just minor things we need to fix. We know that we often let up at the end of the game, even if we've been ahead all game. We just have to push that much harder, especially these two games this weekend."
"Our team is not playing badly right now," Nagel added. "We started out very well against Clemson--we outhit them, out-blocked them, there were just some plays where we needed to communicate better at the end of the game. It's not as if there was a huge difference between winning and losing."
Tonight's game against N.C. State will provide a golden opportunity for the Blue Devils to perfect their game. In October, Duke won convincingly in three games against Wolfpack.
Although Nagel admits that N.C. State is "a team that's struggled a bit this year," do not expect her team to slack off against the Wolfpack, who she expects "to come in very hungry and to try to knock us off."
The greater test this weekend will come Saturday against UNC, whom the Blue Devils succumbed to in a five-game marathon at Chapel Hill, an experience Nagel described as "a very excitable environment."
Furthermore, Saturday's game will be the Duke seniors' final home game, as Nagel stressed the additional significance that will be placed on this already momentous rivalry game.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.