There was an abundance of good news from Duke's last homestand.
Jourdan Norman recorded her 1,000th career kill, the Blue Devils knocked off two conference opponents in Boston College and Maryland and rose to first place in the ACC.
The bad news? They are not alone atop the standings.
Duke has an opportunity this weekend to differentiate itself when it travels to Florida to take on Miami at 7 p.m. Friday and Florida State at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Currently, the Blue Devils (17-6, 8-3 in the ACC) are tied for first with Virginia Tech and Clemson, and have three other teams just one game behind in the standings-including the Hurricanes (19-4, 7-4).
Head coach Jolene Nagel said the team will focus heavily on its serving and passing, as those were major problems in its last game against Miami, a 3-1 home loss Sept. 25.
But since its ACC-opening loss to Miami, Duke has sufficiently rebounded. The Blue Devils ascended from fourth to first in the conference over the span of a mere month.
"It's been a pretty hectic season, because we have been traveling a lot," Nagel said. "But the team is really excited that all their hard work is paying off, and they are ready to take this momentum into the second half of the season."
The matchup with the Hurricanes kickstarts a difficult conference stretch, as Nagel emphasized the fact that the Blue Devils may have the toughest conference path of any of the ACC leaders, making their showdown Friday even more crucial.
"The difficult thing for us is we play 20 matches, and unlike most years, there are two teams we do not play a second time," Nagel said. "For us, those two are Boston College and Maryland [who are a combined 1-21 in the ACC], with the rest of our games still being competitive and challenging."
While that bad luck might get some teams down, heading into a final stretch that matches them against top conference competition like Miami and Florida State (14-7, 6-5) for five straight weeks doesn't faze Duke. Nagel noted the team's strong focus for the finishing stretch.
The Blue Devils will need it this weekend.
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