When Duke and North Carolina met early in the season, both teams were trying to establish an identity and gain confidence with the season just days old.
During the rivals' rematch Wednesday, both teams will look very different and the stakes will be much higher.
Duke will travel down Tobacco Road to Chapel Hill, N.C., to face No. 6 North Carolina Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Carmichael Arena hoping to prevent the Tar Heels from clinching the ACC title. The Blue Devils are coming off a five-set home win against Miami Sunday on Senior Day and enter Wednesday’s matchup with victories in 12 of their last 15 contests.
In addition to ACC tournament stakes, a Duke upset would be huge for the team's NCAA tournament hopes. The Blue Devils have not beaten a ranked team this season and have the No. 59 RPI in the country entering the final week of the season. Sixty-four teams make the NCAA tournament.
“We’re going to try and recover as best as we can in order to get ready to go on Wednesday,” Duke head coach Jolene Nagel said after Sunday's game against Miami. “All we worry about is the next one we’ve got and how we’re going to take care of business for that. Then we’ll worry about the next one.”
The Blue Devils (21-7, 15-3 in the ACC) will be looking to learn from its early-season contest against North Carolina (25-3, 17-1) Sept. 1. The Tar Heels won that meeting 3-1 and overwhelmed Duke on both sides of the net after dropping the first frame.
The Blue Devils lost the block battle 21-6 and had a dismal hitting percentage of .128—North Carolina's strong play at the net forced Duke into nine attack errors in each of the final two sets.
“They’re a very physical team and they’re solid all the way around,” Nagel said. “We’re going to have to serve very tough so that we can take them out of their offense a little bit, be great with our block and our defense, and control the first touch so that we can score on them."
Middle blocker Jordan Tucker will need to have a huge game for the Blue Devils to have any chance against the Tar Heels.
The senior is coming off a career-high 25-kill performance against Miami, and led the Blue Devils in the previous matchup against North Carolina with 14 kills and a .353 hitting percentage in the loss. In addition to finding holes in the Tar Heel defense, Tucker and Leah Meyer will look to come up with timely blocks at the net to North Carolina down.
Since the September meeting meeting, Duke has become one of the nation's top defensive teams, leading the ACC in digs per set and finding more success with its blockers.
“We’ve changed a lot as a team culture wise since we first played UNC at the beginning of the season," Tucker said. “We’re excited, it’s always a big game when we play UNC, so we’ll be up for it and we’ll be looking forward to it. It’s anybody’s game.”
Tucker has been steady throughout the year, but Meyer could be the Blue Devils' offensive x-factor after posting 10 errors and a .000 hitting percentage in the year's first game against North Carolina.
The Clarence, N.Y., native has picked up her level of play has a season average of .334 and averages almost three kills per set. If Duke's back line—led by defensive specialist Sasha Karelov—can slow down the Tar Heels and keep balls in play, the Blue Devils will need Meyer and the team's outside hitters to step up and put points away on the road.
“I think that we’re more ready, definitely since the last time that we played them earlier in the season,” Karelov said. “[But]I definitely think we have a lot more preparation to do because they’ve changed a lot since the beginning of the season.”
North Carolina has blossomed into one of the best teams in the nation, only dropping a road matchup with Pittsburgh so far in ACC play. The Tar Heels either need to beat Duke Wednesday or knock off Wake Forest Saturday to capture the conference title, and will look for two more well-rounded performances to do just that.
Julia Soles and Taylor Leath headline North Carolina's team by averaging more than 3.1 kills per set, but the Tar Heels have several other capable players and outhit opponents .272 to .165 on average.
After taking on their biggest challenge of the year, the Blue Devils will close out the season in Raleigh at N.C. State Saturday—Duke's last chance to impress the NCAA tournament selection committee.
“We want to end strong and win as many as we can,” said Tucker. “Whatever that means at the end of the season, wherever we go from there, that’s what happens. We really want to focus on being the best team that we can when it’s all said and done. We want to be the best team going out.”
Winston Lindqwister contributed reporting.
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Digital Strategy Director for Vol. 115, Michael was previously Sports Editor for Vol. 114 and Assistant Blue Zone Editor for Vol. 113. Michael is a senior majoring in Statistical Science and is interested in data analytics and using data to make insights.