The schedule may show a familiar name in N.C. State for tonight's match, but Duke may as well be facing a team it has never played before.
When the Blue Devils (9-2, 2-0 in the ACC) take the court tonight at 7 p.m. in Reynolds Coliseum in their first ACC road match, they will be squaring off against a Wolfpack team that looks very different than it has in years past.
N.C. State (2-10, 0-3) is led by first-year head coach Charita Stubbs, whose roster features five freshmen and only two seniors.
Stubbs, who took the job at N.C. State after a nine-year stint as an associate head coach at the University of Arizona, is the first African-American head coach in Wolfpack athletics history.
Duke's lack of familiarity with the Wolfpack's young players and its new coach makes N.C. State a very difficult team to gauge, Duke head coach Jolene Nagel said.
"N.C. State looks a lot different than we've ever seen them," Nagel said. "They have a lot of new players and a new head coach. As far as the opponents in our league right now, I'd say we know the least about them."
Despite venturing into seemingly unfamiliar territory, Duke will continue to maintain the same routine going into the match.
"We look at every opponent the same way," Nagel said. "We've talked a lot about that as a team. We want to prepare the same way. We want to compete the same way."
So far, Duke's mental approach to games has proven to be successful, as the Blue Devils began their conference slate 2-0 with victories over Clemson and Georgia Tech last weekend.
"I feel like the two wins will definitely help us," junior Carrie DeMange said.
N.C. State, on the other hand, enters tonight's game having lost consecutive road matches to Virginia and Virginia Tech to open its ACC season. In Stubbs' first season, the Wolfpack have only beaten Tennessee-Chattanooga and Chicago State.
Duke's players, however, do not believe that N.C. State's record necessarily means that their game against the Wolfpack will be an easy one to win.
"I don't think any victory in the ACC is easy, especially when you're on the road," senior Polly Bendush said. "N.C. State, I think, is a great team. They're not given a lot of credit, but they're young. I think that they're going to be really good."
With a game against North Carolina looming Saturday, the Blue Devils are focused on not overlooking what could potentially be a "trap" game at N.C. State.
"It should be fun because we're playing our cross-town rivalries," Bendush said. "We just have to keep our level of play up."
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