Blue Devils fall in 5th set to Wake

Although Duke came out strong against ACC foe Wake Forest and played to a tiebreaking fifth set, it wasn't enough for the Blue Devils to avoid suffering a heartbreaking loss at Reynolds Gym in Winston-Salem, N.C.

"We are all very disappointed," head coach Jolene Nagel said."We did a lot of good things but we just didn't do enough.... Wake Forest was really scrappy all night and it was a great collegiate volleyball match."

The Blue Devils (10-5, 1-2 in the ACC) started the night strong, taking the first set 25-21 over the Demon Deacons (11-4, 2-1) but dropped the next two sets, 25-21 and 25-22. Duke rallied in the fourth set, 25-18, to force the fifth set, which the Blue Devils lost, 17-15.

"It was not the end result we wanted and things didn't fall in to place perfectly," Nagel said. "But we were really close to making the game go our way and I expect lots of good things to come for this team."

Senior middle blocker Jordan Norman and junior outside hitter Rachel Moss led Duke with 16 kills each. Norman had three kills and Moss had five kills in the crucial fourth set that gave Duke the opportunity to play for the win. Freshman setter Kellie Catanach led the Blue Devils with 46 of the 53 total team assists.

"We moved personnel around in the fourth game, were able to serve to Wake Forest's weaknesses and capitalize on broken play situations which gave us a lot of confidence," Nagel said. "We just had too many hitting errors, especially in the last set. The nine kills and five errors made the difference between winning and losing."

Problems for the Blue Devils arose from their unusually low hitting percentage of .108-uncharacteristic of a team that has been hitting 10- to 20-percent higher all season.

Duke played with passion and never gave up throughout the game, posting an incredible 100 digs in the five-set match. The Blue Devils were led by sophomore outside hitter Clair Smalzer, who tallied 27 digs.