Coaches, athletes and spectators alike wore pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month last weekend at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Pink shoelaces seemed to do the trick for the Blue Devils: Duke swept both N.C. State and North Carolina in three sets.
“Coming in it was really important to us to come together and just kick butt, you know… it’s UNC,” junior Sophia Dunworth said. “I think it was really good, we had really good chemistry coming in and I think we all just fed off of that.”
Dunworth had nine kills against the Tar Heels, with two coming during the Blue Devils’ 7-0 run to begin the match. Duke (15-2, 7-0 in the ACC) held the upper hand for the majority of the contest, holding North Carolina below a .250 hitting percentage in each set. The Tar Heels (15-5, 6-1) briefly held the lead twice in the third set but ultimately succumbed 25-16.
“We need to make sure that we enjoy this for a moment, but quickly turn the page and focus on N.C. State,” head coach Jolene Nagel said after the victory Friday. “But I’m so proud of them. I want them to feel good about this. They performed great tonight, they competed hard, controlled the ball well, they executed just like we like to see.”
The Blue Devils took the excitement from the win over the Tar Heels into Saturday’s tilt against N.C. State (12-7, 2-5). The Wolfpack battled for the first two sets and scored 20 points on Duke in each of those frames, but the Blue Devil offense proved too strong to handle.
“I think we’ve learned in the ACC that you really can’t take any teams for granted,” Dunworth said.
Becci Burling was an impact player for Duke against N.C. State, converting 13 of her 24 attack opportunities and moving her career kill tally to 977. With 13 games remaining in the regular season, she is well on her way to becoming the 19th Duke player to reach 1,000 kills during her career.
Nagel was impressed with her team’s ability to maintain its focus and execute against the pair of rival teams.
“This team is so self-motivated and really good about taking care of its work that [it needs] to get done,” Nagel said. “I think that helps relieve some of the stress a little bit. We always try to prepare well for our opponents but I think this team went above and beyond that.”
The Blue Devils will continue to look at the season one opponent at a time. They will next take to the road to visit Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., and Virginia in Charlottesville, Va., Oct. 14-15.
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