Traveling around the Triangle to take on North Carolina and N.C. State this weekend, Duke hopes to extend its nine-game winning streak to double digits.
The Blue Devils will square off with the No. 10 Tar Heels Friday at 7 p.m. at Carmichael Arena in Chapel Hill before Duke travels to Raleigh's Reynolds Coliseum Sunday at 2 p.m.
"We have had a tremendous start and we are excited about that, but we know we have got a lot of hard work ahead of us as we try to get some of these ACC wins that are really important," head coach Jolene Nagel said.
North Carolina (15-0, 4-0 in the ACC) will enter Friday's contest as the top-ranked team in the conference. Playing for first place in the ACC, the Blue Devils (13-2, 4-0) will have a chance to spoil the Tar Heels' flawless start to the season.
Although the magnitude of the Duke-North Carolina rivalry is not lost on the Blue Devils, the team's primary goal will be to extend its winning streak to 10.
“Now that the week is upon us, we are all very excited for the rivalry in itself, but then also going into the match that both us and Carolina are undefeated in the ACC,” said Ali McCurdy, senior captain and libero.
The Tar Heel attack is led by graduate student outside hitter Jovana Bjelica, who leads the team with 157 kills on the season and ranks third in the conference with 0.39 service aces per set.
For Duke, its strength has been in the team's versatility. At different stretches throughout the nine-game win streak, Emily Sklar, Elizabeth Campbell and Jeme Obeime have led the Blue Devils in kills.
“I don’t think we have one go-to person, so I think we are doing a really good job if someone is having an off match of other people stepping up and other people filling those roles and just trying to help each other out in our game,” said senior captain and middle blocker Chelsea Cook.
The play of junior libero Alston Kearns has powered the Wolfpack (12-4, 3-1) defensively this season. The Apex, N.C., native leads N.C. State with 258 digs on the year. Offensively, the Wolfpack will look to set up junior outside hitter Dariyan Hopper, whose 171 kills lead the team.
Squaring off with two in-state rivals, the Blue Devils won't just have to face tough ACC competition—they will have to do so in hostile road environments.
“We need to be really mentally tough because the environments that we are going into this weekend are not friendly environments for Duke student-athletes to be in,” head coach Jolene Nagel said.
Nagel said that to come away with two more wins this weekend and extend her team's winning streak, focus will be the key. The Blue Devils have not posted 10 straight victories since the team won 11 in a row at the end of the 2006 season.
“We need to be tough to able to handle whatever the environment is going to throw at us as we try to compete out there,” Nagel said. “I just hope that we can relax enough and be able to play our game.”
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