After 10 days off from competition, the Blue Devils expected to be sluggish when they stepped on the court Saturday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium. With a dominating win against Wake Forest, however, No. 14 Duke was anything but rusty.
The Blue Devils (6-3, 1-0 in the ACC) defeated the Demon Deacons in an authoritative fashion, sweeping their conference foe 3-0. Even when Duke was down on the scoreboard, the outcome never seemed questionable as the Blue Devils always controlled the tempo of the game.
"We lost a bit of confidence with the Nebraska loss," sophomore Rachael Moss said. "But just winning so strongly back home brought everything back. I was a little nervous for this, but it was huge. It sets a precedent for the rest of the season and the ACCs."
In the first game, Wake (3-7, 0-1) caught Duke off-guard, scoring the first point on an uncontested spike. It would be one of the Blue Devils' only mistakes the rest of the match, however, as Duke quickly regained the momentum and went on a 5-0 run to eventually win the game 30-13.
The Demon Deacons responded with rejuvenated intensity in the second game, though, setting the tone of the match with a 5-0 start. Service errors hurt the Blue Devils throughout the game, with six points resulting in short or foul serves.
"We just had too many errors in the beginning of game two," head coach Jolene Nagel said. "The errors just really destroyed the momentum and we couldn't get anything started."
After reminding themselves to focus with a chant midway through the game, Duke battled back to regain the lead and win the match 30-23. Two spikes from Moss served as the final nails in the coffin.
The final game proved to be an evenly-paced match as Wake refused to go away without putting up one last fight. Duke's offense was up to the task, silencing the Demon Deacons with Moss and senior Carrie DeMange recording five and four kills, respectively. The sophomore finished with 17 kills for the contest, while DeMange ended up with 12 kills herself.
Senior Ali Hausfeld continued racking up assists, totalling 40 in the three games. She is well on her way to overtaking Duke's all-time record of 5,082 assists. On the defensive side, libero Jenny Shull led the team with 16 digs.
Despite the lopsided score, the Blue Devils were not without their faults. Throughout the three matches, unforced errors plagued Duke, with numerous scoring chances lost on serving mistakes or missed digs.
With ACC play in full swing, Duke will host Maryland Friday at 7 p.m. Now that their first conference victory is behind them, the Blue Devils can focus on going out on the court and doing what they love to do.
"We need to work on the little things like serving, getting to the ball, and trying to make opponents make the mistakes," Moss said. "But we really need to focus on having fun and not worrying about the outcome. We just need to enjoy playing volleyball."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.