Traveling to the west coast this weekend, Duke survived a whirlwind of three games in 24 hours and a test of team confidence.
The No. 20 Blue Devils rebounded from losses to No. 1 Stanford Friday and Santa Clara Saturday to bring home a win against Pennsylvania Saturday night.
The weekend’s schedule was Duke’s most challenging and tiring to date, pushing the Blue Devils emotionally and physically with little time to rest after each of their two losses.
“On the one hand, I think it’s been good for us to be challenged like that, get a little bit of conditioning and get our minds right for the quick turnaround,” head coach Jolene Nagel said. “I don’t think we did the best job at that. But I think it was great that we experienced it, and we are going to learn from it.”
Committing three service errors and five errors on attack, the Blue Devils gave up the first set of the match against Pennsylvania and seemed to be headed for their third loss of the weekend. The Quakers (2-5) jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second set.
But a kill by outside hitter Jeme Obeime suddenly shifted the momentum in Duke’s favor. With kills from Breanna Atkinson and Alyse Whitaker bookending a series of Pennsylvania’s errors, the Blue Devils forced the Quakers to take a timeout and claimed the lead 6-5, which they would not relinquish for the remainder of the set.
“The first set of the Penn match, we were just trying to regain our confidence and to play like we know we are capable of playing,” Nagel said. “Once we were able to execute better on the serve and offensively, we were able to gain some confidence and things just got better from there.”
Two service aces from Pennsylvania’s Ronnie Bither to bring the score to 18-16 kept Duke from running away with the second set, but after a Blue Devil timeout, freshman Nicole Elattrache responded with three service aces of her own. Duke sealed the set with a kill by outside hitter Emily Sklar.
Sklar paced the Blue Devils on offense Saturday night, recording a career-high 24 kills. With just 45 attempts, the junior hit at a .422 clip and also recorded eight digs, a block and a service ace.
“I think Emily is still getting back into where she needs to be in terms of playing in a rhythm,” Nagel said. “She was very consistent offensively. To be where we need her to be, the consistency needs to be there… We need her to do all those things as a six-rotation player.”
Duke claimed the last three sets of the match easily, each by an eight-point margin or more, taking the match 3-1. The Blue Devils (5-3) needed the victory to rebuild confidence and to end the weekend on a high note after two tough losses.
Duke faced Stanford Friday night, hoping to knock off the nation’s top-ranked team, but the squad found its rhythm too late offensively and was unable to keep up on defense.
Middle blockers Inky Ajanaku and Merete Lutz powered the Cardinal attack, giving Stanford its first 5-0 start to the season since 2011. Ajanaku—last week’s AVCA National Player of the Week—knocked down a career-high 21 kills against the Blue Devils. Redshirt freshman Lutz started her first match for the Cardinal and recorded a career-high 13 kills.
With the pair amassing 10 kills without an error in the first set, Stanford claimed the first set easily, 25-11.
Duke’s back line stepped up to slow down the Cardinal attack in the second set. The Blue Devils picked up 30 digs in the second frame, led by sophomores Sasha Karelov and Chloe DiPasquale. Karelov recorded a match-high 18 digs and DiPasquale recorded a career-high 12.
Also stepping up the effort on offense, Duke knocked down 20 kills and nearly took the second set after battling back and forth with Stanford. But at set point 25-24, an Ajanaku kill, Cardinal ace and Blue Devil error turned the tables and put Stanford up 2-0.
Duke was able to claim the third set by limiting the Cardinal attack to nine kills with four blocks, all solo or assisted stops by Whitaker. The 25-23 victory in the third frame only stalled Stanford briefly.
Hitting at .654 to the Blue Devils’ .222, the Cardinal squad took the fourth and final set 25-15.
“The team actually played pretty well,” Nagel said. “But I also expected us to have gotten that second set and I feel like we let up in the fourth set. We didn’t go after it, and that was disappointing because we are a team that can do that and needs to do that to take the next step.”
After falling 3-1 to the nation’s top team Friday, Duke entered Saturday’s first match with Stanford still on their minds.
The Blue Devils were not able to find their rhythm again Saturday afternoon against Santa Clara, struggling with team confidence. Duke fell behind and fought its way back in each of the three frames, only to lose the sets by three points or less.
Late in the third set with Santa Clara up 23-16, a kill from Obeime seemed to turn the momentum around for the Blue Devils. The squad fought back to within two points, 23-21, but could not hold off match point.
The Broncos (8-2) swept Duke 3-0.
“They were the aggressors for sure, which was frustrating because we weren’t where we needed to be emotionally and mentally,” Nagel said. “They caught us too much on our heels and we didn’t do that to them enough.”
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