Tucker coming on strong for Duke volleyball as stretch run nears

Jordan Tucker is not your ordinary Division I middle blocker. And that’s what makes her so good.

The Prairie Village, Kan., native is the most energetic player on the court, tossing pregame mini-volleyballs farther into the stands at Cameron Indoor Stadium than anyone else and unleashing screams of joy after kills. She exudes a palpable sense of excitement that is as genuine as it is infectious.

“I love to cheer. I love to get everybody going,” Tucker said before the season started. “Most of the time, a lot of people think I amp it up, but genuinely that’s my initial reaction. The game’s so fast, there’s so much like emotion in it that you don’t have time to make cheers. It’s just pure emotion for me.”

The only junior named a co-captain, Tucker has keyed Duke’s second-half resurgence as the Blue Devils set their eyes on a return trip to the postseason. But the road to success in Durham was not always clear-cut.

At six feet tall, Tucker is smaller than the typical middle blocker, a position that requires elevation and athleticism to both lay down kills and block opponents. Playing for her high school team, her height was not a problem, as she led nationally ranked Bishop Miege to three Kansas 5A state championships.

But colleges were looking for tall middle blockers, which meant Tucker would need to stand out in other ways. And she did, using her long arms, powerful step and high point of contact with the ball to deliver forceful blows.

“[Height is] another thing about the game you can use as motivation to make you work harder,” Tucker said. “[Senior Breanna] Atkinson always says, ‘It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.’”

But Tucker missed out on the opportunity to commit to Duke during her sophomore year of high school—when elite-level students commit—despite initial interest from Duke head coach Jolene Nagel. When she visited campus in the spring of her junior year, though, Tucker said she immediately fell in love with Duke. Although Tucker was more of an unknown because she delayed her decision, Nagel brought her on board anyways.

Tucker was worth the gamble. She played in all but four sets during her freshman year, learning from the likes of Emily Sklar, Jeme Obeime, Elizabeth Campbell and Chelsea Cook on a team that captured the 2013 ACC championship. With 222 kills at a team-best .308 rate, Tucker earned a spot on the ACC All-Freshman Team.

As a sophomore, she picked right up where she left off, again leading the team in kill efficiency and playing every set of every match. In addition to making her second All-ACC Academic Team, Tucker was tabbed to the second team All-ACC.

“She’s just one of those kids that, as a coach, you love to have on your team, and you love to be able to be her coach, because she gives you everything she’s got,” Nagel said. “She isn’t necessarily the tallest, but she is a really physical player.”

But Tucker’s production slowed during the first half of this season. She hit just .196 in Duke’s first 13 matches as the team struggled to find a rhythm, losing close set after close set. With Obeime gone and Sklar nursing a lingering injury, the team needed a player who could provide a spark.

On Oct. 2, North Carolina swept the Blue Devils, a match in which the Tar Heels overpowered Duke at the net. Tucker—who is as passionate as anyone about the Tobacco Road rivalry—took time to reflect after the game about her role and effort.

“I don’t even know what it really is, but [the rivalry] brings something out of you that you can’t really reproduce,” Tucker said. “I kind of had a moment after UNC where, hearing what my teammates had to say and feeling what we felt…. I kind of said to Coach, “We’re sick of losing. We’re done with that—we’re over it.’”

Two days later, she turned in her best performance of the year to that point, notching 13 kills at a team-high .360 rate to lead the Blue Devils to a dramatic, five-set comeback victory against N.C. State.

Tucker’s play has been on the rise ever since, and during the past five-and-a-half weeks, she is hitting at a team-best .351 clip and has picked up ACC Player of the Week honors. Duke is 7-4 since the North Carolina game, compared to a 6-7 ledger before.

“She just went another gear higher,” Nagel said. “She realized, I think, that we needed somebody to be able to do that for us, and wasn’t afraid to be the one, wasn’t afraid to put [herself] on that line.”

At the end of this season, Sklar will leave Duke with a big hole to fill. But based on her mid-season renaissance, Tucker appears ready to fill the void and leave her own legacy in the process.

“I wasn’t so comfortable to like be rowdy or get really loud,” Tucker said. “Our team has really worked on, this year, opening up and allowed each other to be ourselves a little bit, which I think eases everybody up. Obviously, you want to be playing as a unit, but you don’t want to lose your identity.”