After a rocky start to nonconference play, Duke regained its footing in a dominant display against a pair of Big 12 opponents this weekend and will now focus its attention upon a second-consecutive ACC title.
Coming off an impressive 3-1 victory against West Virginia Friday—snapping the Mountaineers' 10-game winning streak—the Blue Devils kept rolling. Duke swept Oklahoma 3-0 Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium to push its winning streak to three games and give it some much-needed momentum to close out the nonconference slate
Junior Breanna Atkinson—whose two service aces tied the for second on the afternoon—set the tone for the game on the first point with a strong kill across the court. It remained neck and neck for the first half of the match, and Duke found itself in a tied set at 15-15. From there, however, the Blue Devils picked up their intensity and gave up only three further points as they went on to win the first set 25-18.
“Once you kind of get going on a team and figure out what works, it’s easy to kind of gain that kind of momentum and carry it through and get a little more comfortable so you can be more aggressive towards the end of that set,” senior Kelsey Williams said.
The second match rendered a similar story, with much back and forth between the teams. There was one scary moment, as, with Duke ahead 14-10, Sasha Karelov and Chloe DiPasquale collided while going for the ball. Fortunately for the Blue Devils, both players walked away unscathed and Duke would go on to win the match by a final score of 25-15.
“We just said push through, we have to win this set. We really just wanted to get our points quickly and score the way we know how to score,” junior Emily Sklar said.
With Duke leading 11-8 in both of the first two sets, Oklahoma (9-4) coach Santiago Restrepo called a timeout in an attempt to gather his team. Both times, however, the Blue Devils were noticeably the more readied team coming out.
“During timeouts, and in between games two and three, we really just talked about strategy, where open shots are, and reminded everybody to stay patient and stay calm,” Williams said. “It’s mostly just strategy and keeping the team on the same page when we go out there.”
The third set consisted of an onslaught of Duke total shot attempts, led by Emily Sklar—who also leads the team with a 3.69 kills-per-set ratio—with 10, and Breanna Atkinson with 11. Despite the Sooners making a late push to close the gap to three, the Blue Devils outpaced Oklahoma to hold on for a 25-20 victory to secure the sweep.
“Our big focus was that this was our last preseason match. We really needed to be firing all of our cylinders and getting ready for ACC play,” Sklar said. “We were happy to get a 3-0 victory…and get ready for the next portion of our season.”
After a busy weekend, the Blue Devils will receive a much-deserved five day break before their first conference matchup of the season against Georgia Tech (6-6) next Friday Sept. 26 at 6:30 p.m. at Cameron Indoor Stadium. They look to defend their current perfect record at home (6-0) as they move in to ACC play.
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