Blue Devils win 2 of 3 at Arizona State

Following a week off, Duke jumped right back into competition with a strong 2-1 finish at the Sun Devil Classic this past weekend.

The Blue Devils (7-2) swept Butler (5-8) Friday and continued the momentum with an exciting 3-2 victory over host Arizona State (8-3) later that evening. The Blue Devils, however, fell to Notre Dame (6-4) Saturday, 3-1.

The weekend was highlighted by Duke's back-and-forth battle against Arizona State-a member of the competitive Pac-10 conference. Despite having already played earlier in the day, the Blue Devils fought for more than two hours to secure the win in the five-game match.

"It was a brawl out there," head coach Jolene Nagel said. "Both teams were making some great plays, both teams were hammering some balls, and either team could have easily folded because both teams were going after it."

Duke had to make a number of clutch plays to pull out the victory. Tealle Hunkus sent home a crucial kill at 29-28 to win the first game. The Sun Devils responded with two straight victories of their own to lead, 2-1. The Blue Devils, however, came back with a do-or-die victory to knot the match at two and force a tie-breaking fifth game.

After trading point-for-point in the fifth game, Duke called a timeout-down 15-16 and a point away from defeat. The Blue Devils reemerged and won three straight points to clinch the match.

"I really think our focus was tremendous to play throughout that match and not let things get away from us," Nagel said.

Carrie DeMange led with a match-high 21 kills to surpass the 1,000 kill mark for her career in the game. Setter Ali Hausfeld posted her fifth career triple-double, while Jenny Shull anchored the defense with 30 digs.