The seventh-seeded women's volleyball team was outlasted by second-seeded Maryland Friday night at the ACC Tournament. Duke played one of its best matches of the year against the Terrapins (24-7,) losing 3-2 and ending its season at 10-19 overall. Maryland would go on to defeat No. 6 Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship.
"It was a very competitive game," senior Krista Dill said. "Both teams came out ready to play. The thing that is so hard about this loss is that we played well."
Duke began the match with high-intensity and jumped out to an early 10-6 lead. When the Blue Devils extended their lead, Maryland fought back to close the gap to just three points. Led by outstanding play from the seniors, the Blue Devils went on to win the first game 30-23.
"Our team played well against Maryland," head coach Jolene Nagel said.
"We served pretty well, we blocked better than they did...we had a better hitting percentage. It was a very, very close match."
The Terps won the next two games 30-27 and 30-23, but the Blue Devils were able to push the match to a fifth and deciding game by out-hitting the Terrapins en route to a 30-19 win in game four.
After falling behind 6-1 at the start of the final game, Duke could not recover in time, losing 15-7.
The Blue Devils were led by seniors Katie Gilman, who recorded 19 kills, and Dill, who added 12 kills and six blocks. Fellow senior Tassy Rufai recorded her ninth double-double of the season, finishing with 11 kills to go along with her 12 digs.
Junior Stephanie Istvan had a huge game, picking up a remarkable 34 digs.
"[Istvan] does a lot of our serving as well," Nagel said. "That's huge, she passes a ton of balls on servicing, she kept us in a lot of rallies...I mean, 34 digs is a lot."
Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, Duke was unable to beat the eventual league champs.
"That game was bittersweet," Dill said. "We played so well and I really felt that our team all came together and played well at the same time.
It was bittersweet because we had to stop after that. It should be the beginning not the ending."
For the seniors, the loss was especially difficult because the team was starting to play better just as their college careers came to a close.
"We'll remember that we did end the season playing well," Rufai said. "Even though we worked hard but didn't get the result we wanted, we gave it our all."
Nagel noted that she is "very optimistic" for the future because of a strong nucleus of underclassmen.
"I'm going to miss these seniors tremendously because they were just a phenomenal group," Nagel said. "[They had the] desire to push themselves to the utmost, but they really set a great example for our younger players."
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