Judging by their 36-game home winning streak, there's no doubt the Blue Devils know how to defend their court. But this weekend, Duke will get the chance to prove its skills outside of Cameron Indoor Stadium with its first ACC road trip of the year.
The No. 14 Blue Devils (8-3, 3-0 in the ACC) travel to Florida this weekend to Florida State (4-7, 1-2) and Miami (8-4, 2-1) Friday and Sunday, respectively.
Although Duke sits atop the ACC standings, the team still has room to improve.
After committing 20 serving errors combined in their past two matchups against Maryland and Boston College, the Blue Devils' primary focus is on keeping the ball inbounds during serves.
"These past few games, we've been trying to serve the ball as hard as possible," senior Carrie DeMange said. "But the more errors we make, the more careful we have to be. We just need to be consistent on getting it in."
Despite its serving woes, Duke leads the ACC in several offensive categories, including assists (16.58 per game), hitting percentage (.271) and kills (17.75 per game).
The Blue Devils owe much of their success to the duo of DeMange and senior Ali Hausfeld. DeMange continues to thrive with a conference-best 5.15 kills per game. Serving as the perfect complement to DeMange, Hausfeld currently leads the ACC in assists with 14.15 per game.
The senior setter is closing in on Duke's all-time assists record, and at only 62 sets away, could potentially break the record this weekend. However, head coach Jolene Nagel stressed the importance of not focusing on individual statistics.
"It's a huge accomplishment for Ali and for this entire program," Nagel said. "We're going to celebrate the achievement when it happens, but it isn't going to be the focus."
After sweeping FSU 3-0 in both matches in 2006, the Blue Devils may not recognize the team that takes the court Friday: The Seminoles get significant production from freshman Lauren Rosenthal and Oregon transfer Mira Djuric. Miami, which left Virginia last weekend with 3-2 wins over both the Cavaliers and Virginia Tech, also poses a threat.
Although Duke is anxious about leaving its comfort zone in Cameron, it's ready to face whatever opponents bring.
"We know they're going to do everything to try and dissect us and stop our strengths," Nagel said. "But in difficult environments, we want to step up to the challenge."
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