Four straight wins, a healthy lineup and a sweep against Virginia—the Blue Devils are officially catching fire.
Duke defeated the Cavaliers 3-0 (25-18, 25-18, 25-14) Saturday at Memorial Gymnasium in Charlottesville, Va., in the Blue Devils’ most lopsided victory of the season. Although Duke fell at home 3-1 against Virginia Sept. 25, the Blue Devils needed just one timeout Saturday and were in cruise control for almost the entire match.
“I think this one feels particularly good because there was some great individual efforts, but as a team, I felt we were the most prepared and the most together as a unit of the entire year so far," Duke head coach Jolene Nagel said. "It was really special.”
A big streak during each of the three sets pushed Duke (12-10, 7-5 in the ACC) to victory. In the opening frame, the Blue Devils held a 13-7 lead, but the Cavaliers (15-8, 7-5) closed to within 18-16. In response, outside hitter senior Emily Sklar tallied a kill, reigning ACC Player of the Week and junior middle blocker Jordan Tucker notched an ace, the Cavaliers committed four errors and Duke ended the set on a 7-2 run.
In the second set, the Blue Devils once again opened up with a lead, and they went on a 9-3 run to take a 19-11 advantage. Virginia used up its timeouts to stop the bleeding and hoped to gain some offensive momentum, but the errors kept piling up. On the other side of the net, sophomore Cadie Bates collected seven kills without an error throughout the game and won the final point of the frame on a set from senior Maggie Deichmeister.
The Cavaliers won the first two points of the third set, and they protected their edge for the next 21 points, taking a 12-11 lead thanks to a Jasmine Burton kill. But Duke's junior libero Sasha Karelov—who finished with four aces, no service errors and eight digs—served with precision on seven straight points, helping Duke take an 18-12 lead.
“By the third set, Sasha got her serve going, and that was pretty exciting, too, because that just clinched it for us,” Nagel said.
Sophomore Nicole Elattrache later took her turn from the back line, and got help at the frontline from Tucker, who bested Bates’ .500 kill rate with an even better .600 clip. Tucker put down five kills during a 14-2 run to close out the set.
The Praire Village, Kan., native—who has now recorded double-digit kills in each of her last four matches—is making an argument to hold onto the ACC’s top weekly honor. Tucker tallied 13 kills in both of Duke's wins this week and posted a better kill rate this week than last week.
“Anything, how about everything?” Nagel said of what Tucker is doing particularly well. “She’s playing like an upperclassmen should play right now. She prepares very well for an opponent, she has that energy on the court all the time and she’s been able to be consistent.”
The Blue Devil offense—among the top in the country in kills for a third straight year—finished with a .366 kill rate, and the defense held the Cavaliers to just a .198 clip. But equally important in the victory was the service game, which included eight aces and five errors. It is a testament to Duke's gradual improvement after it began the season with serving issues and tallied only two aces in the first meeting against Virginia.
“We’ve come so far since [our first match against Virginia],” Nagel said. “I can’t say enough about the total team effort…. It was just almost like all the energy in the gym was on our side.”
The Blue Devils—who are 8-4 in away games this year—finish their four-game road stint with matches Friday against Georgia Tech and Sunday against Clemson. After beginning the season ranked No. 25, Duke could restate its case to be an NCAA tournament team with two more road wins this week.
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