The Blue Devils expected many things for the new ACC season, but falling early on their home court was not part of their plan.
Duke swallowed a difficult loss against Virginia Friday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium, 17-25, 17-25, 25-21, 23-25, suffering its first defeat in ACC play after sweeping Wake Forest Wednesday. Senior outside hitter Emily Sklar contributed 17 kills with 14 digs, with redshirt senior setter Maggie Deichmeister dishing out 42 assists to carry the offensive load for the Blue Devils. Duke dropped the first two sets beforemanaging to win the third as the Cavaliers marched toward victory with a .285 hitting percentage throughout the game.
"I really don’t think we performed well at all," Sklar said. "Anyone who was watching could see that we just weren’t giving the same effort we were doing, looking awkward and tentative and people just really didn’t come out to play today."
After losing the first two sets, the Blue Devils (6-6, 1-1 in the ACC)had their backs against the wall with the game tied at 13-13 in the middle of the third set when sophomore outside hitter Cadie Bates and junior middle blocker Jordan Tucker stepped up to gain a tight lead for Duke. With two decisive kills from Tucker, the Blue Devils reached the set point at 24-21 against Virginia (9-3, 1-0) and sealed the deal in the next rally on an attack error from the Cavaliers.
"I say we stepped up ahead in our defense a little bit," Sklar said. "I don’t remember any significant block that set but I think people sort of became a little bit more aggressive and made smarter shots. We also had some new people coming in and I think they did a great job in that set. So that really helped."
With the momentum from the third set and the crowd cheering it on, Duke battled hard against Virginia in the fourth set—trailing by as many as six points late in the set—narrowing the deficit to just one point at 23-24. But the Cavaliers eventually capitalized on their match point on an attack error by Sklar.
Despite the effort put forth by the Blue Devils in the last two sets, they handed away the first two sets without much resistance, falling to the Cavaliers 17-25 and allowing Virginia to fire a soaring .361 hitting rate in the first set. In contrast, Duke hit only .175 from the net in the same set and .196 overall in the game.
"I think we made way too many hitting errors when I look at these numbers right here," Duke head coach Jolene Nagel said. "We need to take a look at that, but we also need to make them handle the ball a little bit more. I think they were way more efficient hitting-wise tonight and we made too many hitting errors."
As they try to move on from this tough loss, the Blue Devils will have almost a week of rest before hitting the road to take on rival North Carolina in Chapel Hill next Friday and N.C. State Sunday afternoon.
"It’s a grind. The ACC season is a grind. Its still early in our season," Nagel said. "Tonight I'm optimistic that we can do very well…we have to have that consistency and hopefully our leadership will step up and try to help our team understand what kind of effort is needed each time we go onto the court."
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