The Blue Devils have struggled on the road this season. With two big conference games on the road this weekend, though, the team will need to right the ship quickly.
Duke (8-6, 2-3 in the ACC) will face Virginia Tech (9-7, 3-2) Friday and Virginia (6-9, 0-5) Saturday. Both games are at 7 p.m.
Duke has been held to only one win in five tries as the visiting team this season. The Blue Devils lost a total of only four times away from Cameron Indoor Stadium all of last season.
“Its hard to compare playing at home and playing on the road because the match-ups that we have faced on the road are much, much tougher,” coach Jolene Nagel said. “We can not let those losses pull the team down mentally.”
One of the teams that Duke lost to last year on the road was Virginia Tech. The Hokies are on a hot streak, having won four of their last five matches behind its ability to control play at the net. Defensively, the Hokies are led by the blocking ability of 6-foot-2 sophomore Victoria Hamsher, who has recorded 77 of the team’s 156.5 blocks. In contrast, the Blue Devils have just 99 blocks on the year.
The Hokies have many different offensive looks, with four players who have already surpassed the 120-kill mark on the season. This balanced attack will force Duke’s defense, led by ACC dig leader Ali McCurdy, to remain on its toes during the entirety of the match.
“They run an offense where they have three hitters in the front row at all times.” Nagel said. “They have a lot of choices on offense. We need to look at what options are going to work for them and be ready to play regardless of what they decide to throw at us.”
The Blue Devils will have their best opportunity to rebound against the struggling Cavaliers, who have have yet to pick up their first ACC win
“We cannot take this match-up lightly,” Nagel said. “We have to compete at a high level and concentrate on us. If we continue to work on the areas that we want to get better in, then we will give ourselves a great chance to be successful.”
The Blue Devils are also hoping that they can take advantage of a less multi-faceted Virginia offense.
Outside hitter Simone Asque receives the majority of sets—550 attempts so far this season—and leads the Cavaliers in kills with 193. Middle blocker Jessica O’Shoney is the other major threat for Virginia offensively. Asque and O’Shoney combine to make up just under 50 percent of their team’s kills.
“We know who we have to stop,” Nagel said, “But doing so does not guarantee us anything. They have some other talented players to go to, but right now, our first step this weekend is to concentrate on the Friday’s match against Virginia Tech.”
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