In welcoming Miami to Cameron Indoor Stadium for Thursday night's ACC opener, Duke hoped to gain an indication of where it stacks up in its own conference.
In falling to Miami 3-1, the Blue Devils showcased their scrappy, passionate style of play, but also discovered a need to improve certain technical aspects of their game.
"Miami took advantage of everything that we made a mistake on, and that's what good teams in this conference are going to do," Duke head coach Jolene Nagel said.
After the Blue Devils (9-4, 0-1 in the ACC) took the first game 25-22, they fell behind early in the second and couldn't recover-for the rest of the night.
In failing to control the ball and putting together quality touches on its side of the net, Duke foreshadowed the troubles that would plague it for the rest of the night. The team never could settle into a rhythm in an eventual 25-15 loss.
In the third and critical set, which featured 14 ties and five lead changes, the Blue Devils held a 22-21 lead. Several late sequences, however, did not end up in the home team's favor as Miami (13-0, 2-0) prevailed 25-22.
And then Duke dug itself into a deep hole in the fourth and final set-one that it couldn't escape despite displaying impressive resiliency.
It was junior Rachael Moss, who led her team with 22 kills for the match, spearheading the comeback that ended in a 25-20 loss.
While disappointed in the outcome, Moss was impressed with the never-say die mentality of her teammates-one that the Blue Devils will need when they take on Florida State, Friday in Cameron.
"We didn't give up," Moss said. "We just took a little too long to get going, which won't work in this league. We have a horrible feeling right now, but we're going to use it as fuel to hopefully finish the conference season without losing again."
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