Duke women's basketball faces Notre Dame in ACC play with top spot in conference on the line

This time they'll meet as conference opponents.

Following last year's Elite Eight matchup in the Norfolk Regional that ended the Blue Devils' season, No. 3 Duke (21-1, 8-0 in the ACC) will face undefeated No. 2 Notre Dame (20-0, 7-0) for the first time as ACC opponents Sunday afternoon at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The Blue Devils, who snuck by an upset-minded Miami team earlier in the week on a late game free throw from center Elizabeth Williams, will face their toughest test since a December game against Connecticut that resulted in a 20-point Duke loss. Without captain Chelsea Gray in the lineup due to a season-ending injury, younger, inexperienced players have been forced to play different roles than earlier in the season.

The Fighting Irish know something about transitions, as they lost star guard Skylar Diggins, who scored 24 points in the teams' 2013 Elite Eight contest, to graduation last spring. But unlike the Blue Devils who have struggled to find answers mid-season, Notre Dame has handled the period of transition easily, racking up an undefeated record thus far by relying heavily on a committee of players to win.

"They might even be better than they were last year," head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "Skylar Diggins is a really great player—there's no doubt about that—but they seem to be more in cahoots with each other."

Despite the challenges of adjusting the lineup in the middle of the ACC season, Duke has focused primarily on improving the consistency of play on the court, an issue that has plagued this Blue Devil squad for the past two seasons. Even with talent and experience on both ends of the floor, the challenge of playing a full 40 minutes and commanding the dynamic of a game remains.

"When you play very good teams, consistency is the answer," McCallie said. "Every possession being in it, being intense, and immediate. There's a lot of good things we can take from Miami."

Preventing opponents from scoring has been a consistent issue for McCallie's squad, despite its size under the basket in Williams and senior Haley Peters. In the past four games, Duke has allowed an average of 72.3 points per game to opponents while putting up 86.5 points per game. In all of the Blue Devils' close contests this season and their sole loss, opposing teams have scored an average of 76.5 points per game, highlighting Duke's struggles to contain competitive foes.

"The biggest thing for us is our defensive intensity, our focus, and really coming out from the start and shutting people down—not letting them get hot and dictating what they can do with what we play on defense," senior forward Haley Peters said.

The difference maker for Duke continues to be senior guard Tricia Liston, who has led the Blue Devils in scoring all season and has averaged 24.0 points and 6.4 rebounds in the five games since Gray's injury . Liston has become the de facto leader on the court for Duke even leading the Blue Devils in scoring the last time they faced the Fighting Irish with 19 points. The team, however, will need to support Liston's efforts with multiple players scoring in double figures for Duke to claim the victory. A bright spot of playing through the season's close games has been the development of players such as Amber Henson, who sat out two years due to injury, and freshmen Oderah Chidom and Kendall McCravey-Cooper.

"Having that experience with those close games under our belt, that is going to make us feel like we've been there before," Liston said. "[Those games] make us more comfortable in those situations, especially some of the younger players who haven't been in many games like that yet."

The Fighting Irish will present a challenge to Duke on both ends of the floor with three players—Jewell Loyd, Kayla McBride, and Natalie Achonwa—averaging double-digit scoring.

Duke has succeeded against top-five ranked opponents in Cameron Indoor Stadium with McCallie at the helm if they are not Connecticut, who has handed the Blue Devils all three of their home losses to top-five teams. With a packed crowd Sunday, Duke will have the chance to assert its place in the national championship discussion once again.

Though they may be multiple steps behind Connecticut, the Blue Devils need to earn a victory in order to compete for the top spot in the ACC with another contest against Notre Dame on the horizon, a game against No. 6 Maryland and two contests with No. 7 North Carolina. Hustle and effort will be crucial to earning a Duke victory against another talented team, something that was lacking at times against Connecticut.

"Its a whole team mentality," Peters said. "We've gotten a little bit more gritty. We've had some games where we've had to fight and its not pretty. Its not really flashy, but we've gotten the job done. Its something we've needed to get better at."