Playing one of the top teams in the country, Duke sacrificed precision for power and aggressiveness. It almost paid off, until Stanford spoiled Duke’s home opener at the very last minute.
The No. 3 Cardinal topped the Blue Devils in a five-set thriller (25-17, 22-25, 25-17, 23-25, 15-10) at Cameron Indoor Stadium Friday night, despite a career-high 27 kills from senior outside hitter Emily Sklar. Stanford avoided its third straight loss, leaving Duke still in search of its first-ever win against the Cardinal.
“I think we did some really good things at times, but we’ve got [to] just make that a little more steady, and not have big ups and downs that I felt like we had tonight,” Duke head coach Jolene Nagel said. “We’ve just got to even some of those things out.”
Trailing 11-9 in the fifth and decisive set, Sklar unleashed her 27th kill of the match to close the gap to one. But the Cardinal turned the next kill opportunity into a floater that surprised Duke and narrowly beat junior libero Sasha Karelov’s attempt to keep the ball in play.
Looking to climb back into the set, the Blue Devils then went to Sklar—who had the hot hand all night—three straight times, but two errors and one block handed Stanford the match.
“I think it slipped away really quick,” Karelov said. “You can almost smell the victory, but then it just slips away.”
The Blue Devils went 2-2 after Sklar left Duke's third game of the season early with an injury, and in her first game back, the San Jose, Calif., native had plenty of opportunities to make a difference. The senior put down her 27 kills on 79 total attempts, finishing with a .241 hitting percentage. Sklar also racked up 12 digs for her 34th career double-double.
Middle blocker Jordan Tucker also gave the Cardinal headaches Friday, leading the team with a .273 hitting percentage and providing a spark for the Blue Devils at the end of the fourth set. With the set deadlocked at 22, Tucker provided two kills, including the final blow, to send the match to the fifth set.
The Tucker-fueled rally was the second time Duke responded to an easy Stanford victory in the previous set. The Blue Devils lost 25-17 in the first and third sets, but after trailing 13-9 in set two, Duke closed on a 16-9 run to even the match.
It was almost enough, but the Blue Devils were their own worst enemy far too often against too good of an opponent. Duke committed 11 service errors—the third time this season that the Blue Devils have made double-digit errors from behind the service line—and posted just one ace. Incumbent ACC Freshman of the Week Leah Meyer, primarily a blocker in high school, struggled serving Friday, committing three errors.
“We knew we’d have some service errors, because we wanted to serve tough,” Nagel said. “I’m just not sure if we served as well as I would have liked to have seen, as tough as I would have liked to have seen us.”
The Cardinal surrendered numerous points throughout the match as well, many due to miscommunication. But the Cardinal emerged with help from the top-ranked recruit, freshman Haley Hodson, who supplied 17 kills at a .333 clip, and 6-foot-8 redshirt sophomore Merete Lutz, who tallied 15 kills and four blocks.
The Blue Devils take on UNC Wilmington Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m to continue their homestand after opening with two tournaments on the road. After such a heartbreaking loss, Duke will have to regroup for a Seahawks squad that defeated North Carolina Friday night.
“This is an emotional loss because I think they gave their all, and so that’s going to be the challenge tomorrow, get ready to play a really solid team in UNC [Wilmington],” Nagel said.
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