Blue Devil of the Week: Rachel Richardson has record-setting weekend at Penn State Invitational

With fall sports thoroughly underway, The Chronicle is polling its readers every week via its Sportswrap newsletter to highlight one Blue Devil athlete’s outstanding performance. This week’s spotlight goes to Duke volleyball’s Rachel Richardson:

Three games in two days, putting one’s best effort on the court every minute, all while setting a career high and leading Duke to nearly break its previous record for total blocks: This incredible performance was put on by Blue Devil senior Rachel Richardson at the Penn State Invitational.

Duke faced Princeton and No. 3 Penn State Saturday as well as St. John’s Sunday for a riveting and fast-paced two-day invitational.

The Blue Devils played a great game against the Tigers, winning 3-2. Initially the squad from Durham was trailing 2-0, but after regrouping, it had 15 kills in the third set with five of them coming from Richardson. She had a dominant performance, tallying her first double-double of the season. She also recorded a career-high 17 kills and 12 digs, along with three aces and two blocks.

Despite the Nittany Lions having home court advantage as well as coming into the weekend with the sixth-best hitting percentage in the nation, the senior outside hitter was not deterred. During the second set, Penn State had a 48.2% hitting rate to take a 2-0 lead, yet Richardson led the Blue Devils with four kills. Ultimately Duke could not find an answer to the Nittany Lions and lost 3-0, but she had an outstanding performance with eight kills and a block.

Heading into the final game of the invitational against St. John’s, Richardson did not let up, tying her career high of six blocks. Although both teams had a rocky offensive start, the squad from Durham won the third set but eventually fell to the Red Storm 3-1. This game was marked by senior Rylie Kadel, freshman Breonna Goss, junior Kerry Keefe and Richardson spurring the Blue Devils to register 17 total blocks. Richardson contributed just over a third of them, generating the most the team has tallied since it recorded 18 in 2019 against Syracuse. 

Outside of Richardson having a stellar performance in this two-day invitational, she also has worked hard off the court. The Ellicott City, Md., native has been named to the All-ACC Academic Team in 2022 and ACC Academic Honor Roll in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Her accomplishments have not only been limited to her time at Duke. In high school she competed in the USA Girls Open Junior National Championships for four years and was also named 2019-20 Player of the Year by the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC), along with Washington D.C. Gatorade Player of the Year. 

Richardson has had an amazing career at Duke and she will certainly look to continue leading the Blue Devils to more victories throughout the remainder of the season.