Volleyball takes the sting out of Georgia Tech, 3-2

In the heat of the second game against No. 20 Georgia Tech (19-4, 5-2 in the ACC) in Cameron Indoor Stadium Tuesday night, Duke's Arielle Linderman blocked a powerful shot by the Yellow Jackets' Blair Moon, which almost knocked her flat on her back.

The play was indicative of the type of intensity the Blue Devils (16-6, 4-3) played with last night against a team who had expected them to simply roll over and take a beating.

"We really worked as a team," said Linderman, who had 32 set attacks and five kills. "Whenever someone was down, there was always someone there to step up."

Bounding onto the court at the start of the second match, Duke answered the power hitters of Georgia Tech with incredible defense, such as Katie Gilman's sprawling dig when the score was 22-16 and the aforementioned block by Linderman.

Once the defense allowed for some breathing room, Duke's offense began to break down the Yellow Jackets, changing play from a power hitter's struggle to hitting play formations, such as Jill Sonne's cross-over kill landing exactly in the middle of the helpless Tech defense. Duke won the second match with the largest spread of the night, 30-20.

"We came into the game feeling like we had something to prove," said Sonne, who was one of the team's leaders with 14 kills. "We came out and played as hard as we could."

Both squads were out to prove their power and halfway through the third match, neither team had surpassed the other by more than two points. Eventually, Georgia Tech eventually pulled out a 30-27 win over the Blue Devils.

Duke, however, struck back by taking the fourth and fifth games 30-22 and 15-9.