Despite having revenge on its mind, Duke still could not avoid an upset at the hands of the Demon Deacons.
In the opening game of the Black and Gold Challenge Friday, the Blue Devils fell to Wake Forest for the second straight time, 3-1. Duke rebounded for a 3-0 win over Charlotte Saturday.
“I think our team really did some good things and worked very, very hard,” head coach Jolene Nagel said. “Our team wanted it so badly…but we had trouble [finishing] in critical times in the match.” No. 23 Duke (5-4, 0-1 in the ACC) hung with the Demon Deacons (4-5, 1-0) in each of the match’s four games—the Blue Devils were the first to 19 points in each—but had trouble closing out sets. Wake Forest responded each time with a late run, stealing the games when Duke, Nagel said, did not “respond the way [it] needed to.”
Carlin Salmon and Kadija Fornah led the Demon Deacons with 21 kills each, coming mostly off sets from freshman Danae Rosendall, who recorded a career-high 49 assists.
“I have all the faith in the world that we’re going to work through this and get better as a result,” Nagel said. “It wasn’t that we didn’t play hard, it wasn’t that we didn’t play well, we just needed a little bit of communication and needed to relax at critical times.”
Nagel was pleased the way her team responded on Saturday against Charlotte, though.
The Blue Devils buried the 49ers in three straight sets due in large part to their outstanding defense, which started at the net with Amanda Robertson. The senior recording nine blocks, followed closely by Christiana Gray and Sophia Dunworth with five and four, respectively. On the back line, sophomore libero Ali McCurdy put together a performance that earned her All-Tournament libero honors. Reigning ACC player of the year Kellie Catanach orchestrated the Duke offense, amassing seven kills, 25 assists and 10 digs.
Duke’s defense made life difficult for Charlotte’s attackers and players like Kellie Catanach made life difficult for the 49er defense. Catanach had a stellar performance obtaining a triple-double, recording 7 kills, 25 assists and 10 digs.
“I was really so pleased to see our team come back on Saturday, not just to beat the opponent they were capable of beating, but how they did it,” Nagel said. “[They] could have easily been lazy and still could have probably done okay, but instead [they] were disciplined and executed the way [they] are capable of executing.”
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