Duke’s final ACC road trip of the season ended as most of them have: with the Blue Devils recording two more conference wins against overmatched opponents.
Duke (24-5, 14-3 in the ACC) defeated Virginia Tech 3-1 Friday night in Blacksburg, Va., and recovered from an early deficit Saturday to take down Virginia in Charlottesville.
The two victories solidified the Blue Devils’ hold on second place in the conference standings, giving them an outside shot at the league championship. Duke sits two games behind Florida State, which beat the Blue Devils twice this season, with three matches left.
“There were some interesting losses that took place within the league,” head coach Jolene Nagel said. “Luckily, it wasn’t us—we took care of business.”
Duke opened its tour through Virginia at Cassell Coliseum against an inconsistent Virginia Tech squad. The Hokies (17-11, 7-10) were led by Felicia Willoughby and Cara Baarendse, attackers who played quite well, but were let down by the rest of their roster, which hit at a -.042 pace. Libero Claire Smalzer had 18 digs in the match, and the Blue Devil defense forced the Hokies into errors all evening.
The Virginia Tech defense was completely unable to deal with the Duke attack, led by senior Rachael Moss. Moss recorded her 10th double-double of the year with 15 kills and 20 digs in helping Duke win the first two sets and seal the match in the fourth.
“She is a very smart player,” Nagel said of Moss. “She has a great volleyball IQ and against Virginia Tech she was really able to take advantage of some things that they weren’t disciplined on.”
Saturday’s matchup with Virginia (12-16, 7-10) would prove to be a tougher test. The Cavaliers won the first game, 26-24, and nearly took the second before Duke recovered for the 27-25 win.
“We struggled in that first game, no doubt about it,” Nagel said.
The last two sets turned out to be more academic, as the Blue Devils allowed just 12 points in the third set and held on in the fourth for the victory.
Once again, Moss was one of the keys to the win. She bested her performance from the night before with 17 kills and 21 digs, and the dig total represented a season high.
She was not alone in putting together a strong offensive performance, however. Duke’s middle blocking trio—Becci Burling, Christiana Gray and Amanda Robertson—combined for 40 kills, and Kellie Catanach dished out 50 assists on the night.
Nagel said she was impressed with her team’s composure, especially given the squad’s travel schedule. The Blue Devils have been on the road the last two weekends, and both times returned to Durham in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
“They came out hard at us, but we were able to get it in four,” Nagel said. “Right now, it’s like the team has been such a tremendous team together with how they practice each day. I don’t mean to sound like everything is perfect, but we just spent two long weekends on the road together.... This is a lot of together time and it could drive a lot of people crazy, but the team gets along so well, it makes it easier.”
Duke closes its regular-season slate with a trio of games against in-state competition in the next nine days, with the most important coming against North Carolina Saturday night.
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