Just 24 hours after perhaps its biggest win of the year, Duke's season came to an abrupt end in the NCAA tournament Saturday.
The Blue Devils advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament with a 3-2 win over No. 25 San Francisco Friday before being shut out by ninth-seeded UCLA to end their season Saturday in Pauley Palivion in Los Angeles.
Duke (25-9) started the weekend well, advancing to face the Bruins by coming from behind to beat San Francisco (22-8). The Blue Devils trailed 2-1 after three sets before storming back to win the last two behind junior Rachael Moss, who finished with 16 kills and 17 digs, and sophomore Becci Burling, who posted a .467 hitting percentage.
In the win over the Dons, senior Jourdan Norman paced Duke with eight of its 14 blocks, and fellow senior Sue Carls won the match for the Blue Devils with a kill to take the last set, 15-9. It was Carls' ninth kill of the match, while Norman added eight of her own.
The Blue Devils had less success the next night, though, when they ran into a UCLA juggernaut in the tournament's second round.
The Bruins (22-10) dominated, sweeping all three sets and failing to surrender more than 19 points in any set.
Once again, Moss dominated the Duke boxscore, contributing 11 kills and 14 digs for her fifth straight double-double. Burling, too, added nine kills and two blocks, committing just five attack errors in the two postseason matches.
The loss Saturday ended the careers of seniors Aana Wherry, Carls and Nourman. In their four years at Duke, the trio led Duke to four NCAA tournament appearances, two ACC championships-including one this year-and a combined record of 103-28.
-from staff reports
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