After an uncharacteristic first set, Duke was quick to remember it had lost just once in the past six weeks.
Breaking Syracuse’s four-game win streak, the No. 18 Blue Devils beat the Orange in four sets Friday at Cameron Indoor Stadium to take sole possession of first place in the ACC.
Squaring off for just the third time in program history and first time in a conference matchup, Duke (19-3, 10-1 in the ACC) was presented with an unfamiliar challenge in Syracuse (10-13, 5-6). After dropping the first set, the Blue Devils regained form and had little trouble notching a 3-1 victory.
“I think it was really exciting to play Syracuse. We had never seen them before and didn’t really know much about them,” sophomore outside hitter Emily Sklar said. “It’s really exciting getting to play people in the ACC, and getting to play new opponents this far in the ACC season.”
Losing the first set 25-16, the Blue Devils had a tough time on the defensive end against Syracuse’s hitters. Syracuse amassed a total of 12 kills to Duke’s 11, and the Blue Devils were unable to register a block in the opening stanza. Duke did not lead at any point in the opening set.
“I think that we were a little tight, so we weren’t really controlling the ball really well when we touched it,” head coach Jolene Nagel said. “We needed to relax a little bit so we could get a rhythm going and control the ball a little better to begin to get our offense going.”
It did not take long for the Blue Devils to find that rhythm. Jumping out to a 7-1 lead to start the second set, Duke cruised to a 25-10 victory. The Blue Devils won 17 of the first 20 points in the set behind the play of Sklar and senior Chelsea Cook, who controlled the net and prevented Syracuse from registering a single block in the second set.
The third set told the same story, as Duke closed out the stanza on a 6-0 run to take it 25-17.
After recording 10 hitting errors in the first set and combining for just four in the second and third, Duke's sloppy execution returned in the fourth stanza. The Blue Devils notched another 10 errors in the final set, but were able to fight through and take a 25-20 victory to close out the match.
Sklar led both teams with a match-high 17 kills, and was followed closely by sophomore Elizabeth Campbell with 15. Sklar now has recorded double-digit kills in her past 14 matches. Sklar and senior Chelsea Cook each served three aces to contribute to the team total of eight on the evening.
Senior Ali McCurdy led the defense in the match with a total of 22 digs. This brings her within 14 digs of the ACC's all-time record. She was able to compensate for Duke's difficulty on the block throughout the contest.
“Throughout the different sets we were trying to switch up our defense a little bit,” McCurdy said. “They were throwing some tips in at us, and we knew we needed to adjust to that.”
With a 24 hour turnaround before Duke's next match—a home tilt with Boston College Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at Cameron Indoor Stadium—the Blue Devils will look to work on their communication on the offensive end to keep their recent hot streak going. With last night's victory, Duke has now won 15 of its last 16 matches.
“Our communication wasn’t consistent all the time, so we’ll talk about the significance and the importance of that,” Nagel said. “Also, we came into the match wanting to be the aggressor, and I don’t know if we were the entire time, so I think we can do a better job of that, as well.”
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