Duke ventured south to Florida on a two-game revenge tour but will return to Durham just one-for-two.
After earning a sweep against Miami Friday in Coral Gables, Fla., the Blue Devils faced No. 20 Florida State inside Tully Gymnasium in Tallahassee, Fla. Duke won the first set 25-19 but dropped the ensuing three to come up short 3-1 (19-25, 25-18, 25-23, 25-17). The match was the Seminoles' second come-from-behind win against Duke this year after the hosts overcame a two-set deficit at Cameron Indoor Stadium Oct. 9.
“We’re so close,” Duke head coach Jolene Nagel said. “The team’s definitely got to be feeling it right now, but at the same time you’ve gotta be able to make plays in order to finish and be able to be successful in the ACC on the road.... We needed to execute just a little bit better in a couple different areas of our game in order to get the win.”
Florida State (22-7, 15-3 in the ACC) ended up with 61 total kills, to Duke’s 49, and the Seminoles hit at a .242 clip to Duke’s .184 hit. The Blue Devils (15-13, 10-8) did not hurt their own cause with errors─they had one fewer attack error than the Seminoles and the same number of service errors. Duke also had 12 blocks compared to Florida State’s 11.
Middle blockers Alyse Whitaker and Leah Meyer and senior outside hitter Emily Sklar each put down 10 kills to tie for the team lead. Libero Sasha Karelov recorded 20 digs and also collected two of Duke’s four service aces. Maggie Deichmeister recorded 41 assists for the Blue Devils.
“It was great that we could mix the offense up there a little bit, but we just got in some spells where we weren’t able to get the ball to target because we just weren’t passing well enough, and it just made it harder on our hitters to be able to put the ball away,” Nagel said.
Florida State’s Nicole Walch fueled the Seminole attack with 18 kills, and got help from teammates Milica Kubura and Mercedes Vaughn, who combined for 27 more. Cecilie Woie recorded 16 digs and Brianne Burkert and Hailey Luke each racked up big assist totals for Florida State.
The Blue Devils pulled ahead in the first set behind a 6-0 run that gave them a 21-14 lead. Sklar and junior middle blocker Jordan Tucker both had kills during that critical stretch. Meyer had a team-high four kills in the opening frame.
“We had such a great first set,” Nagel said. “We really executed well, we controlled the ball well [and] I thought we served pretty well. It was just like the game plan, just like we had hoped for.”
Duke’s momentum would prove short-lived in the second set. Knotted at 17, Florida State won three straight points, and then, with the Blue Devils trailing 21-18, the Seminoles won the last four points of the set on a service error, successive kills by Walch and Kubura and a set-ending attack error by Sklar. Duke had just 10 kills in the stanza while committing eight hitting errors.
A Karelov service ace gave Duke a 13-9 lead in the third set of play, but Florida State promptly won the next six points and 10 of the next 12. Duke battled back, though—trailing 24-21, Whitaker saved the Seminoles' first set point with a kill and Karelov saved a second with her second ace of the set. But Walch closed things out with a kill to give the Seminoles the 2-1 lead in the match.
Desperate for a fourth-set win to avoid dropping the match, Duke took an 11-10 lead but immediately fell behind after giving up five straight points, and the Seminoles never relinquished that advantage. Whitaker got a kill on Florida State’s first match point, but Vaughn’s kill brought the match to an end.
Despite the loss, Nagel said she has been pleased with her team’s improvement since their previous matchup with the Seminoles, a stretch during which Duke has a record of 8-4.
“I really think the team has worked to get better,” Nagel said. “We’re definitely in a different spot than we were the last time we played Florida State. It’s been nice to see the team really working and working to try to be better.”
Sunday's match was Duke’s final road contest of the season. The Blue Devils wrap up the regular season with two matches at Cameron Indoor Stadium against bitter regional rivals during Thanksgiving week. Duke takes on N.C. State Wednesday at 1 p.m. and then North Carolina at the same time Saturday.
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