Overview
The 2024 season marks the 54th iteration of Blue Devil volleyball and the 26th year for head coach Jolene Nagel. With a roster of 18 and seven newcomers — including four freshmen and three graduate transfers — the focus of the Blue Devils leading up to the season has been team-building and integration. And with a stacked nonconference schedule and a strong ACC lineup, the pressure is on for Duke to perform.
To get ready for preseason play, Team 54 has been busy getting to know each other off the court. The team took personality tests, completed an escape room, went out to dinner and fed animals at a local farm. Coach Nagel is hoping that off-court chemistry will translate into on-court synergy.
“I think the team has worked very hard this preseason. They're working well together, and I think it's going to be fun to see how we execute out there on the court,” Nagel told The Chronicle.
Duke’s preseason play began with a charity exhibition match against N.C. Central benefitting the Boys and Girls Clubs of Durham and Orange Counties, and it awaits a six-game homestand and three matches in State College, Penn., for a tournament hosted by Penn State. In Coach Nagel’s words, “our preseason has turned out to be very, very, very competitive.” Some highly anticipated preseason matchups include Patriot League winner Colgate, No. 13 Kansas, Princeton and SEC foes South Carolina and LSU.
“There are no easy matches along the way here,” Nagel said of the preseason. “It's going to challenge our young team immediately. It's going to help us learn a lot about ourselves very quickly, and hopefully help us get better quickly, because we're going to be challenged night in and night out.”
The ACC schedule promises to continue competitive play, with the conference having sent teams to the Final Four every year since 2021. With conference realignment, the ACC adds three new teams including the 2023 Pac-12 winner Stanford and the 2023 American Athletic Conference winner SMU, further strengthening the conference’s volleyball chops.
“We already had a pretty solid conference with the teams that we had,” Nagel said. “Now, it's even stronger with the three new teams that were added.”
With five captains guiding the Blue Devils, Coach Nagel is confident in her outlook of the 2024 season.
“We're a team and we're not just an individual sport, hopefully we can lean on each other along the way in order to make that challenge something that we can rise to,” Nagel said. “Duke is an exceptional place, and you're surrounded by excellence, and I think it's just going to keep us fighting to get better.” -Alex Sizemore
New players to watch: Grace Penn and Nikki Quinn
After losing setter Emma Worthington to graduation, Duke will be looking to replace her production through incoming graduate student Grace Penn and redshirt freshman Nikki Quinn. The setter position is often referred to as “the quarterback of the team,” as the role entails taking control of the offense, and the duo’s performances will be strong influences on the team’s season outcome.
Penn brings a veteran presence, having spent her four undergraduate years with ACC rival Boston College. The Manhattan Beach, Calif., native brings her 2149 career assists to Durham, after splitting time at setter with classmate Sophia Lambros for the past four years. Penn should bring a level of maturity to a young group, with redshirt sophomore Millie Muir and Quinn having played a combined 23 sets in college.
Quinn has a decorated high school resume, as she led her club team to the finals of the Triple Crown Elite Division tournament, one of the most prestigious in the country. It’s hard to predict Quinn’s impact because she did not play last season, but if she breaks out for Nagel’s team, the setter position will be locked up for years to come. -Myles Powicki
Returning players to watch: Rachel Richardson & Kerry Keefe
The pair of outside hitters were two key players in the offensive arsenal of the Blue Devils’ 2023 season. Both Richardson and Keefe saw time on the court in all 29 matches of last season. Their return to Team 54 will mean that Duke retains its most lethal weapons as it encounters a challenging schedule.
Rachel Richardson, a senior from Ellicott City, Md., will be returning for her fourth year with Duke volleyball. In the 2023 season, she tied for third-most kills with a total of 157, and tallied her career high in blocks. Off the court, Richardson has been on the ACC Academic Honor Roll for all three of her previous years at Duke, and her experience on the court and in the classroom will serve her well as a mentor for the several newcomers. She is playing at the top of her game and promises to be a major asset at the net and a role model for the nascent Duke team.
Kerry Keefe, a junior from Pacific Palisades, Calif., returns for her third year wearing the Blue Devil uniform. She was tied for first on the team with 356 total kills in 2023 and led the outside hitters with a .308 hitting percentage. Last season, Keefe tallied a career high in kills, registered five double-double performances and was named ACC Offensive Player of the Week in September. This followed a strong freshman year, during which she was named to the All-ACC freshman team. With two seasons under her belt and still two seasons more to improve, she unquestionably will be a pivotal player in this season and beyond. -Sizemore
Most anticipated matchup: vs. Florida State, Oct. 27
Duke’s Oct. 27 matchup with Florida State will be a strong litmus test for this team’s position going into the second half of ACC play. The Seminoles are ranked No. 20 team be, and they’ll likely be one of the strongest opponents the Blue Devils will face off against. Currently, the Blue Devils have many difficult matchups on their schedule, and if Duke is able to take home the midseason matchup, it’ll have positive momentum going into the second half of its season and a potential postseason run. -Powicki
Best-case scenario
The Blue Devils will face off in 31 matches this season, 11 in nonconference and 20 in the ACC. With some strong returning players and highly anticipated newcomers, Duke will be looking to improve on its 10-8 conference record and sixth-place finish from 2023. Five ACC matches this season will be against teams with a higher conference standing at the conclusion of last season, and the addition of strong teams to the conference will also prove challenging. If Duke can hold on to its favored matches and take some of the most competitive spars, the Blue Devils could be looking at a 15-5 ACC record. -Sizemore
Worst-case scenario
In a worst-case scenario, the Blue Devils could regress a level from last year, drop close games in conference play to teams they finished ahead of last year and finish in the bottom half of the conference. Virginia, Virginia Tech and Syracuse figure to be the bottom feeders of the ACC standings again, and even in a worst case scenario, Duke should place just above North Carolina, Boston College and Notre Dame. If the Blue Devils beat everyone they should and lose to everyone else, they’d finish with a below .500 record in both conference play and overall. -Powicki
Predictions
Myles: 21-10 (12-8 in the ACC), seventh in ACC standings.
Alex: 21-10 (13-7 in the ACC), fifth in ACC standings.
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