The most potent pair in the ACC will face off against one of the league's most powerful players tonight.
Duke (21-3, 14-1 in the ACC) squares off against Wake Forest (13-11, 9-6) at 7 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium just four days after defeating North Carolina in four games. The showdown is a rematch of Duke's three-game sweep of the Deacons Oct. 10 in Winston-Salem.
Juniors Carry DeMange and Ali Hausfeld, the former high school teammates, have led the Blue Devils to three straight wins after Duke's upset loss to Georgia Tech Oct. 27.
Wake Forest, on the other hand, comes in looking to reestablish itself as an ACC contender. Led by star sophomore Jessica Furlong, the Deacons have lost four of their past six after sprinting their way through their schedule on a 10-3 run.
The Blue Devils, however, realize that Furlong is a tremendous force to be reckoned with.
"She does a tremendous job," Nagel said. "She's a very powerful hitter in the ACC and she does a good job for [the Deacons]."
For Duke, Hausfeld dishes out assists on the vast majority of the team's points-so much so that she has rapidly ascended to second place on Duke's career assists list. Hausfeld has tallied a total of 4,048 assists during her tenure at Duke.
DeMange, meanwhile, has led the team in kills every year during her career, with 344 this season. The team heavily relies on the two thanks to their playing together for several years. Both were All-ACC selections as sophomores and preseason All-ACC picks this year.
"We just add a lot of stability to the team because we play so well together," Hausfeld said. "The team just relies on us because we've been playing together for so long."
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