After a sleepy start Friday morning against Syracuse, the Blue Devils came to Cameron Indoor Stadium ready to play Sunday.
Duke scored the first five points of the match against Boston College en route to a 25-16, 19-25, 25-21, 25-15 win. Co-captains Emily Sklar and Jordan Tucker led the Blue Devils once again with impressive all-around performances to rebound from a four-set loss to Syracuse and end the weekend on a high note.
“We talk a lot about the character of our team based on how we bounce back after losses,” Sklar said. “We did a really good job of that. We really worked on knowing our opponent well because they have some really good players. Pretty much the same team as last year...but they’ve just gotten a lot better.”
Tucker opened the match with back-to-back kills and freshman Kelli Kalinoski quickly added two service aces—including one that barely crawled over the net. When freshman Leah Meyer and redshirt senior Maggie Deichmeister blocked a spike from Sol Calvete, Boston College (11-17, 3-13 in the ACC) faced a 7-1 deficit that prompted head coach Chris Campbell to use a timeout.
“Boston College is a very scrappy, tough team, and so you can’t give them a chance to get started,” Duke head coach Jolene Nagel said. “That was very important to help our team get some momentum.”
The Eagles cut it to two on three separate occasions, but Duke (14-12, 9-7) responded each time—twice with blocks—and never let the visitors get closer in the opening stanza. Sklar helped the Blue Devils pull away with three kills during a 13-5 run during the opening frame. The senior outside hitter posted a double-double with a team-leading 20 kills and 13 digs and hit .360 on her 21st birthday.
The first set was also marked by an impressive defensive performance from Nagel’s squad. Duke had five total blocks and junior libero Sasha Karelov tallied seven digs to keep several points alive and hold Boston College to a .000 hitting percentage.
The tables turned in the second set, though, and this time the Blue Devils never led as Boston College jumped out to a 10-5 lead. Duke narrowed the margin to 15-13, but Katty Workman responded with two straight kills to create separation again. The senior outside hitter led the Eagles in the contest with 16 kills, but hit just .189 with six attack errors.
“She’s always been great, and to be honest I’m glad we don’t have to play her again,” Nagel said. “We tried to…really delay on our block, and we changed our defenses up on her a little bit throughout the match, so she didn’t really know for sure what we were in.”
Duke’s defensive presence at the net disappeared during the frame, only managing one block. Boston College capitalized to hit .327, with 19 of its 25 points coming on kills, but it did not hit above .150 in any other frame during the match.
The third stanza featured the afternoon's only two lead changes, but both came early on as the teams went back and forth to open the set. Nagel’s squad never trailed after Sklar broke a 6-6 tie with a kill, but the Eagles made it interesting with a 5-1 run to make the score 21-20.
Senior Breanna Atkinson then responded with a kill to give the Blue Devils some breathing room, and Tucker did the rest with a powerful spike down the middle, a finessed kill that dropped untouched in the front left corner of the court and an assisted block to finish the frame. The junior middle blocker had 17 kills and a solo block to go along with six block assists, and she also led the team with a .417 hitting percentage.
“Jordan brings a lot of energy to our team, which I’m sure everybody notices out there in the gym,” Sklar said. “It’s also really helpful to get one-on-one blocks, because they’re trying to go get Jordan, and the middle gets confused with who they want to take because Jordan and I are both doing so well.”
The match finished much like it started, with Duke opening the fourth frame on a 6-1 run and staying in control to cruise to the victory. The Blue Devils hit .393 during their most efficient offensive set and bookended the contest with five total blocks again. Meyer closed the match with her 10th kill to become Duke’s third player with double-digit kills.
The Blue Devils hit the road next weekend for two critical conference matchups Friday against Miami and Sunday against No. 21 Florida State.
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