With the NCAA tournament approaching, each victory becomes increasingly important for head coach Jolene Nagel and her team. Luckily for them, the team’s last regular-season ACC weekend came against two of the conference’s bottom-feeders, Maryland and Boston College.
Duke (20-8, 14-5 in the ACC) defeated the Terrapins (9-22, 3-16) Friday in College Park, Md. in four sets, 25-13, 25-17, 25-27, 25-19. In Chestnut Hill, Mass. Sunday, the Blue Devils overcame an early deficit to rally past the Eagles (7-23, 3-16), 30-32, 25-14, 25-21, 25-18.
“I wouldn’t have called it a ‘must-win,’ but the matches were very important,” head coach Jolene Nagel said. “If we do not perform well, we put ourselves in jeopardy [for the NCAA tournament] during selection time because they look at how teams play in their last 10 games.”
Duke took down Maryland behind the dominant play of setter Kellie Catanach. The 6-foot-2 senior recorded 43 assists, most of which went to Sophia Dunworth and Christiana Gray, who recorded 16 and 15 kills respectively. The Blue Devils cruised to victory despite dropping a tight third set.
Two days later, Boston College edged Duke in the opening set of the match before the Blue Devils responded to sweep the next three sets.
“We were not passing well, not controlling our first touch as well as we would have liked and we gave [Boston College] too many easy chances to win points off us,” Nagel said. “We still thought we could get a win in that set, but our play was just not at the level it should have been at if we wanted to win that game.”
After digging themselves a small hole, Duke was able to turn its struggles around in game two. The team handled the Eagle serves much better, played solid defense and was able to transition well from defense to offense. With an increased level of play, the Blue Devils were able to run Boston College off the court in game two, winning by a convincing 11 points, 25-14.
“[Libero Ali McCurdy] played great for us [Sunday],” Nagel said. “She was able to save us by keeping plays alive when balls were tipped or deflected.”
McCurdy had 24 digs against the Eagles, extending her ACC lead in the category.On the offensive end, Catanach contributed 53 more assists while four Duke players reached double digits in kills.
After losing game two, the Eagles made adjustments to compete with the Blue Devils in the next two games, but in the end, Duke won 25-21, 25-18 in games three and four, respectively.
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