As the volleyball team looked at the scoreboard late Saturday night, it read 14-9 in favor of the home team, Florida State (19-10, 7-7 in the ACC). It was looking as though Duke might be headed to another five-game match, not a good sign for the team.
Duke (17-11, 6-8) has not been on a roll. In its previous seven games, six of them have been losses. And lengthy matches were nothing new to the Blue Devils, either. Of those six losses, they saw three straight five-game matches, including a Parent's Weekend nail-biter with North Carolina in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
This time, however, things would be quite different. The Blue Devils, leading 2-1, had an opportunity to end the match. They did so in impressive fashion while rallying to score seven straight points and fending off several do-or-die sideouts in the 16-14 final game.
Head coach Jolene Nagel was very pleased with the team's comeback.
"The difference was we hung tough," she said, "when in other times, we didn't play tough."
In the first game, Duke came out sluggishly, and the Seminoles handled them, easily winning 15-6. This did not bode well for the Blue Devils, who had lost three straight games in their most recent loss to Wake Forest, a team that they had beaten 3-0 previously in the season.
"We didn't play very well in game one, then we picked it up and won games two, three and four, " said Coach Nagel.
Duke quite simply stepped up its level of play in order to beat Florida State 15-8, 15-11 and 16-14 in the final three games.
In early October, Duke was tearing through its schedule with a record of 15-4. Since then, ACC competition has been considerably rougher for the Blue Devils.
With only three games left in the season, including last night's game against Florida State, the Blue Devils have an opportunity to end the regular season on a high note with three straight wins. Nagel realized the situation and her team responded well to the recent slump.
"We got off a little slow today but came back nicely," Nagel said. "We played more steady than we have in the past two weeks. We needed a win and that was on our minds a little bit."
The losses seemed to have been on the mind of freshman phenom Krista Dill. While ripping balls left and right, she compiled 14 kills from the middle. Dill also registered five blocks, stuffing several of the Seminoles' hits. Sophomore outside hitter Jill Sonne contributed in both phases of the game in Saturday's match with 11 kills and 11 digs.
The next task for the volleyball team is to use their momentum as the regular season comes to a conclusion. They'll get their chance this Friday when Maryland comes to Cameron.
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