In a weekend where it won two of three matches, Duke's biggest takeaway was not the outcome of its matches, but rather the way a young team communicated on the court.
The Blue Devils opened the weekend with two straight-set wins against LIU- Brooklyn and New Orleans at the Campus USA Credit Union Invitational in Gainesville, Fla., last weekend. But Duke fell to No. 9 Florida in its final match of the tournament.
“This team has a real cohesiveness about it," head coach Jolene Nagel said. "They have fun, they challenge each other, and they expect a lot of out each other and I hope they can continue to do that because I think then we can really progress and get better.”
After going back-and-forth with the Blackbirds (1-2), the Blue Devils finally pulled ahead to take the opening stanza 25-20. Freshman middle blocker Jordan Tucker recorded a set-tying kill in the second frame, and a 5-0 Duke run allowed the Blue Devils (2-1) to overcome a 19-18 deficit.
“I was really proud that, even though we were in that situation, we just kept playing one point at a time,” Nagel said. “I really thought we pulled together and focused on the task at hand and that we were able to come back and win that set.”
The Blue Devils did not have to come from behind in the third set, as their momentum carried them through to a 25-18 victory.
Under the leadership of senior captains Ali McCurdy and Chelsea Cook, Duke has relied on its youth early in the season, leaning heavily on the team's five sophomore and four freshmen throughout the weekend.
Sophomore Breanna Atkinson led the team with nine kills and two aces in the Blue Devils' second match of the tournament, a straight-set victory against New Orleans. Duke grabbed the first two sets handily, winning 25-10 and 25-14. McCurdy recorded a team-high 12 digs against the Privateers (0-3), bringing her career total to 1,968.
With the match firmly in hand, the Blue Devils were able to experiment with a variety of different lineups in their victory against New Orleans. Nagel lauded her team for its focus and ability to adjust to different personnel combinations throughout the match.
“Often with many teams, when you make substitutions or make some changes, something breaks down like communication or the chemistry,” Nagel said. “But I don’t feel like that happened at all with our girls in that match, and that was really encouraging.”
In Duke's final match of the tournament, the Gators handed the Blue Devils their first loss of the 2013 season, winning in straight sets, 25-16, 25-17, and 25-18 in front of a boisterous crowd of 3,400 spectators.
Florida was led by senior All- American Chloe Mann, who put up 15 kills during the match. Sophomore Ziva Recek added 10 kills on 25 errorless attempts.
Sophomore Emily Sklar earned All-Tournament team honors, leading Duke with 25 kills and 13 digs on the weekend.
Nagel said that in her team's first defeat of the year, the communication was noticeably different.
“I think we were a little tight,” Nagel said. “I don’t think we communicated as well as we needed to, nor did we go for balls like we needed to. But it was great to see our outside hitters be successful as the match went on with such a big block.”
Nagel said that the team needs to focus on the aspects of the match that they can control, and that is what they plan to do in preparation for their next road trip to Minneapolis for the Diet Coke Classic Friday and Saturday.
“I want the girls to feel good about how we competed, and at the same time understand the things we need to work on,” Nagel said. “But the communication on the court felt really great and it’s really exciting to see all this so early in the season. And I know they are going to keep working really hard to make the team better as we go into this next week.”
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