After a long weekend campaign in Colorado, the relatively young Blue Devil squad was tested yet again on the first day of this weekend’s Duke Invitational.
And although the Blue Devils showed promise, frequent miscues could be Duke's downfall against more experienced opponents.
The Blue Devils opened the Duke Invitational with a doubleheader Friday at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke started the day with an easy 29-27, 25-19, 25-20 sweep of UNC Wilmington in the morning before inconsistencies caught up to the Blue Devils in the nightcap against Northwestern. The Wildcats flipped the script on Duke, dominating in a 25-21, 25-22, 25-22 sweep against the Blue Devils’ new 6-2 formation.
“This morning we did a good job controlling the tempo of the match against a very scrappy opponent—Wilmington had a good win later this afternoon,” Duke head coach Jolene Nagel said. “In regards to this evening's match, I think our team is going to learn a ton from this match. Northwestern was a physical team who set a good tempo on the ball.”
In their opening match of the day, the Blue Devils (4-1) looked as strong as they did in an impressive weekend in Colorado to start the season.
Led by senior Cadie Bates and freshman Payton Schwantz, Duke recovered from a shaky first set to hand the Seahawks (3-2) their second loss of the season in convincing fashion.
The first frame was a bitter back-and-forth battle with 21 ties and 11 lead changes. However, the Blue Devils dug in to find the last two points they needed off Schwantz’s fifth kill of the frame and an ace from Nicole Elattrache, securing the set 29-27.
In the second set, Duke went on a 5-1 run to break a 5-5 tie and never relinquished the lead. Although UNC Wilmington tried to get back in the contest, back-to-back kills from Bates helped give the Blue Devils a commanding lead in the match.
Not going down without a fight, the Seahawks countered a 6-0 run by the Blue Devils in the third set with an 8-1 run of their own to take a 16-15 advantage. However, Duke rallied behind three kills from Bates before closing out the match with a block on the final point. Bates finished the match with a team-high 13 kills and hit .256.
However, despite a relatively easy win against UNC Wilmington, Duke showed it still has a lot of room for improvement at the end of the day against Northwestern.
Despite two close sets, the Wildcats (4-1) capitalized on frequent Duke errors and a shaky defense to take the victory.
“It shows some of the things we need to work on and get better,” Nagel said. “Our team will learn a lot from this match as we fell a little short on our aspirations and doing some of the things that we felt were our strengths.”
The Blue Devils notched six attacking errors in the first set against a skilled Northwestern defense. The Wildcats took the lead at 10-9 and put the set away with three unanswered points—including a powerful kill from senior Symone Abbott.
The second set was a similar story for Duke, with the Blue Devils finding a comfortable lead at 20-15 before letting it slip away. Northwestern notched five unanswered points to level the scorecard, and back-to-back kills from Abbott followed by a service ace were just what the Wildcats needed to take a two-set advantage.
By the third set, Northwestern was finding holes all over the Blue Devil defense. Duke only managed two blocks in the entire set, falling victim to easy kills from Abbott and freshman Nia Robinson. Despite efforts from Bates and junior Leah Meyer, a kill from Robinson followed by an attack error by Blue Devil senior Anna Kropf closed the match. Robinson and Abbott dominated the evening, both notching 15 kills.
“We needed to be better at our block and defense tonight,” Nagel said. “We did do it at times, but we needed to be on it point after point after point.”
The Blue Devils will close out the Duke Invitational with a match against South Carolina Saturday at 3 p.m.
“[The team] needs to recover,” Nagel said. “We've got a really good and physical South Carolina team to get ready for, and we're going to get in the gym next week and we're going to continue to get better.”
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