With only seven conference games remaining in a year with no ACC postseason, the volleyball team will host a pair of pivotal games this weekend when it takes on No. 24 Maryland Friday and Boston College Saturday.
Duke (16-7, 10-5 in the ACC) may need a marquee win over the Terrapins (24-1, 15-1) to bolster its postseason hopes.
The Blue Devils were in a very similar situation last season at 16-7 and near the top of the ACC standings. Despite winning three of its last four regular-season games and reaching the semifinals of the ACC Championships, however, the team did not receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The conference only earned two NCAA bids in 2004 and the Blue Devils were left out. Duke has a similar resume so far this year but hopes to benefit from an improved conference.
"We're really hoping they will take three this time," sophomore setter Ali Hausfeld said. "They added more teams [to the ACC], plus Maryland is ranked in the top 25 right now, so I think there is a lot more respect for the conference this year."
The Blue Devils lost to the Terrapins, 3-0, in College Park Oct. 16. Despite not taking a game, Duke pushed the ACC's first-place team to the limit, losing each of the first two games to Maryland by a slim two-point margin.
Friday's matchup could prove to be even closer, as the road contest against the Terps was the fourth match of a road trip head coach Jolene Nagel described as "hellacious."
"I think it is completely different now going into a match where we are going to have them at home," Nagel said.
The Terrapins have steamrolled through the ACC en route to a 15-1 conference record. Maryland has won 10 straight matches since losing to Georgia Tech Oct. 7, and have dropped a total of only eight games during the streak. The Terps are led by their star middle blockers, Rachel Wagener and Stephanie Smith, who each rank in the ACC's top three in both blocks and hitting percentage.
"They are definitely a beatable team," Hausfeld said. "They are a really big team, but I think we can exploit their ball control. They have a lot of great hitters, but if we can serve tough and just keep digging balls, we'll be able to stay with them."
Duke will have only a single day to turn around from its critical matchup with Maryland. Although Boston College (7-18, 2-14) owns the second-worst conference record, the Blue Devils' first matchup with the Eagles was remarkably tight-each of the four games was decided by just two points. With that in mind, Nagel said even if Duke gets by the Terrapins, her players cannot look ahead to the NCAAs.
"They know that anybody on any given day in the ACC can beat each other," Nagel said. "We'll be trying to make sure that [a letdown] doesn't happen, but I think my team already understands that it is a fact that we can't let that happen."
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