The Blue Devils begin their first home stretch of the season Friday with the start of the 11th annual Duke Invitational-and after starting the year in front of notoriously tough fans at the Purdue Mortar Board Premier last weekend, it's good to be home.
Duke plays its first game at 1:30 p.m. Friday against Seton Hall (2-1) before taking on Colgate (2-1) at 7:30 p.m., with both games to be held in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils finish the tournament against Georgia (3-1) at 3 p.m. Saturday.
More than any other factor, home-court advantage is likely to help the Blue Devils (1-2). The young squad with four freshmen in its regular rotation will benefit from the friendly confines of Cameron.
"The team loves to play in Cameron," head coach Jolene Nagel said. "The whole place is going to be alive with all that's going on and luckily, we're home. We still need to play well to be successful."
That was a challenge that Duke couldn't quite meet last weekend.
The Blue Devils are coming off a tough opening slate which included losses to two ranked teams, No. 25 Purdue and No. 14 Kansas State, before sweeping the tournament finale against Tennessee State.
Despite the pair of losses, though, Duke is confident in its ability to bounce back.
"[Purdue and Kansas State] exposed more things to us than if we were playing somebody that we would just dominate," Nagel said. "Instead of learning them three weeks from now, we were able to pick up on some really important things and we're working on those in practice. I think it was a positive experience."
The Blue Devils will look to keep that attitude over the next two days in order to defend their home turf. Junior Rachael Moss, who was named to the All-Tournament team last weekend after contributing 40 kills in the three matches, will attempt to keep up her hot play, as will seniors Jourdan Norman and Sue Carls. Nourman recorded 14 blocks in the tournament, and Carls tallied 15 kills.
While several put up impressive numbers, the players aren't expecting one standout performer this year.
"This last weekend, I can really see that this year is going to be a complete team effort," Carls said. "Everyone is really involved. I think that's a great asset of our team."
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