Duke Volleyball Splits First Two Matches Of The Season

Friday, September 2

Houston, Texas

2 p.m.

Duke University

McNeese State

Duke Volleyball Splits First Two Matches Of The Season

9/2/2005 10:30:00 PM | Volleyball

By: Duke Sports Information

HOUSTON, Texas ? The Duke volleyball team (1-1) opened the 2005 season by splitting their first two matches at the Crowne Plaza Rice Invitational. Earlier in the day, the Blue Devils defeated McNeese State (1-2) 3-1 before falling to host Rice (3-0) 3-0.

Junior Tealle Hunkus and sophomore Carrie DeMange both recorded double-doubles for the Blue Devils as Duke opened the season with a 3-1 win over McNeese State.

Hunkus recorded a team-high 17 kills and zero attack errors, leading to a .548 attack percentage for the match. She also led the Blue Devils with 19 digs on the defensive end. DeMange added 12 kills and 10 digs in the win over McNeese State.

“Tealle did a great job of mixing up her offense,” said Duke Head Coach Jolene Nagel. “She did an excellent job of not making any hitting errors.”

Duke opened up the match convincingly, winning game one 30-9. “We communicated very well in the opening game,” Nagel said. McNeese State came back to win game two 30-26 before the Blue Devils put the match away, winning game three 30-23 and game four 30-21. “Our communication was not as strong in game two as it was in game one. We did not pass the ball well and made more errors than we wanted to,” Nagel acknowledged. “When we came back out for game three, we did a good job with our serves and our blocking. Our defense allowed us to play well in the last two games of the match.”

Sophomore Jenny Shull anchored the Blue Devil defense, recording 17 digs. Sophomore Ali Hausfeld added 11 digs for Duke but her biggest contribution came on the offensive end. Hausfeld led the Blue Devil attack with 55 assists and added four kills in the match. “Ali did a great job running our offense, especially in games one and four where we hit over .400 in both games,” stated Nagel.

In their second match of the day, Duke was swept by host Rice 30-28, 30-28, 30-17 at Autry Court.

“Rice played very well tonight,” Nagel acknowledged. “We played a great team and it was a good test for us. We have to learn from this game and it will make us a better team.”

DeMange, who missed her second consecutive double-double by one dig, led the Blue Devils with 14 kills and was third on the team with nine digs. Senior Samantha Fisher and junior Pixie Levanas each added eight kills for Duke. Hausfeld again paced the Blue Devils with 33 assists in the match.

Shull led the way defensively for Duke, collecting a team-high 19 digs while Hunkus added 10 digs in the loss to the Owls.

“We need to work on things defensively and make some adjustments. We did not play bad tonight; we just did not take advantage of some opportunities that we should have,” said Nagel.

Duke squares off against Sacramento State tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. in their third and final match of the Crowne Plaza Rice Invitational. The Blue Devils return to Durham next weekend for the 2005 Duke Invitational as they host Southern Methodist University, Cornell and UNC-Charlotte Friday and Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium.