Despite traveling to Florida, the Blue Devils were not on vacation.
Duke fell in both its matches in the Sunshine State this weekend to Miami and Florida State. Despite leading a young and inexperienced squad, Blue Devil head coach Jolene Nagel is hopeful that her team will learn a lot from these games.
“We are young and the less experienced players are still figuring out what ACC play is all about,” Nagel said. “It is so competitive, week in and week out. It’s not like anyone took a vacation or anything, we’re just still coming together as a team.”
The Blue Devils (9-7, 0-4 in the ACC) were blown off course 3-1 (18-25, 25-29, 29-27. 25-21) Friday night in a back and forth matchup with the Hurricanes and fell Sunday to the No. 14 Seminoles 3-1 as well.
Despite the loss Friday night, junior libero Ali McCurdy was able to amass a career-high 37 digs. The accomplishment makes McCurdy the only player in the ACC to top 30 digs this season and her total will go down in the Duke record books as the second-highest all-time and most in a four-set match. After missing last weekend’s games out with an injury, freshman standout Emily Sklar recorded 10 kills and 23 digs in her fifth double-double of the season. Sophomore Jeme Obeime and Christiana Gray recorded 11 and 10 kills, respectively.
Miami (12-3, 4-1) was able to outlast McCurdy’s outstanding play with three players totaling 10 or more kills on the night. Hurricane redshirt sophomore middle blocker Emani Sims registered a match-high 18 kills. Teammate outside hitter, Taylor Hollins, added a double-double for Miami recording 10 kills and 14 digs.
After Friday’s matchup in Miami, the Blue Devils headed north to Tallahassee to take on the Seminoles (12-2, 4-1), the highest-ranked ACC team this season. Florida State committed 10 fewer errors than the Blue Devils and recorded four more kills. Duke, however, was able to keep the Seminoles to a hitting percentage of just .088 in the second set, resulting in a win for the Blue Devils. In yet another close four-setter (20-25, 25-22, 20-25, 16-25), Christiana Gray again produced at the net, amassing a game-high 13 kills. Jeme Obeime added 11 on the afternoon.
Junior middle blocker Ashley Neff, who recorded 10 kills in the match, led Florida State. The Kennesaw, Ga. native leads the ACC in blocking, averaging 1.57 per set.
Nagel praised the veteran play of the team’s upperclassmen on the weekend against two of the ACC’s top teams.
“What we get from the upperclassmen is the understanding of how difficult and competitive the ACC is and what it takes to be able to play your best,” Nagel said. “We know that there are going to be some bumps along the way because [the freshmen] are just being in this situation for the first time and beginning to understand the significance of it all and what they have to do in order to be successful.”
Duke joins Wake Forest and Virginia as the only winless ACC teams. Nagel is confident, however, that the Blue Devils will get to where they want to be and looks forward to the next time the teams meet later this season.
“We’re looking forward to [playing both teams again]. We’re learning a whole lot right now and going to continue learning,” Nagel said. “The team is really committed to get better as a team. I think we have a lot of room to grow and you’re going to see a big difference by the time we play those teams again.”
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