For Maryland and Boston College, the scariest part of their trip to Duke during the Halloween weekend was not ghosts or ghouls, but the play of the Blue Devils, who ruthlessly won both games without dropping a single set at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
After sweeping Boston College (11-12, 1-11 in the ACC) Friday night, Duke took to the court again on the night of Halloween and easily dealt with Maryland for another ACC win. The two victories took Duke (21-4, 11-2) over the 20-win total for a sixth straight year.
After a tight first set against the Terrapins (11-15, 3-10) which the Blue Devils scraped through 25-21, it took five straight points off the serve of sophomore Amanda Robertson to open a 10-point lead in the second set.
“In the first set we didn’t really come out as aggressive as we should have,” sophomore setter Kellie Catanach said. “In the second we did a good job of jumping on them and being aggressive.”
Despite the big lead, Duke allowed Maryland to hang around. The Terrapins pulled to within seven points and saved three set points before eventually falling to Duke, 25-18.
“We just stopped communicating a little bit [near the end of the set],” Catanach said. “It was important that we worked through it.”
This would be the last of the Duke’s worries as the third set proved to be quite comfortable, with the Blue Devils having an attack percentage that was almost twice as effective as that of the Terrapins.
Most of Duke’s mistakes were a direct result of the many confusing attacks by the Maryland offense.
“We needed to make some adjustments to pick that stuff up,” head coach Jolene Nagel said. “We needed to be on our toes because we really didn’t know what they were going to do.”
Duke was led by senior Rachael Moss and sophomore Sophia Dunworth, who finished the game with 10 kills each. They were assisted by a solid performance from Catanach, who had more assists per set in this game than her season average.
Through the game’s early stages, the Blue Devils were always seen with smiles on their faces.
“It’s a fine line between being relaxed… and at the same time being focused,” Moss said. “By laughing it off we move on, but still learn from our mistakes.”
These two matches start the second half of the ACC season, and after recording two wins, Duke remains only one game behind ACC leader Florida State.
“This gets us off to a good start [for the second half of the ACC season],” Nagel said. “It’ll reenergize us before we hit the road for some tough matches.”
Catanach believes the ACC title is in the Blue Devils’ grasp should they continue to perform at the level of this weekend.
Moss, however, believes these two games also showed the character of the team.
“There were a lot of distractions,” she said. “This showed that we could stay together as a team and find that energy.”
Duke now plays on the road for the next two weekends, first swinging through Florida to take on Florida State and Miami.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.