Blue Devils Capture First ACC Title Since 1994 With 3-0 Sweep Over Virginia

Thursday, November 16

Charlottesville, Va.

7 p.m.

Duke University

Virginia

Blue Devils Capture First ACC Title Since 1994 With 3-0 Sweep Over Virginia

11/16/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball

By: Duke Sports Information

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. ? After finishing one win shy of a share of the ACC title last season, the Duke volleyball team captured its first league championship since 1994 on Thursday with a 3-0 (30-23, 33-31, 30-23) sweep over second-place Virginia at Memorial Gym. With the win, the Blue Devils improve to 25-3 overall and 18-1 in the ACC while the Cavaliers fall to 21-7 and 14-5, respectively.

The ACC title is the first for Duke head coach Jolene Nagel, who is in her eighth season at the helm, and the eighth championship in Blue Devil history. Duke won back-to-back-to-back ACC titles from 1984-86 before capturing four straight league crowns from 1991-94. Duke's eight volleyball ACC titles are the second highest total in league history. This is the second regular season title for Nagel but the first overall championship. Nagel and the Blue Devils won a regular season ACC title in 2001 but did not claim the tournament championship, which is what determined the league champion until last season when the tournament became defunct.

With the win, Duke claimed its 104th ACC Championship in school history and second of the fall. It is the 44th ACC Championship in a women's sport, second most in league history and the 42nd conference title under current Director of Athletics Joe Alleva.

Duke's 18 ACC victories set a new school record and it ties the ACC mark set by North Carolina and Maryland a year ago. The 25 overall wins are a new high under Nagel, who had won 24 matches twice before, and the most since 1993, when the Blue Devils went 30-3. The 25 wins also rank tied for sixth most in school history.

“We're really excited to have won the ACC Championship against a very good Virginia team on their home court,” exclaimed Nagel. “Our team has worked really hard to accomplish this and I'm so happy that they could see and experience the results of their hard work. This was a very important match for us tonight because we knew we could clinch the league title with a win but we still have a lot we want to accomplish this season.”

After the two teams traded the first 12 points of the opening game, the Blue Devils used a 16-8 run to take a 22-14 lead. The Cavaliers managed to close the score to five points at 27-22 but the Blue Devils would take game one, 30-23. Sophomore Jourdan Norman led the way for Duke, collecting six kills on six swings for a 1.000 attack percentage in game one. Junior Ali Hausfeld dished out 16 assists in the game as the Blue Devils hit .472 as a team while holding the Cavaliers to a .184 attack percentage.

In game two, Duke spotted Virginia a 7-3 lead before tying the score at 8-8. The Blue Devils would take the lead at 13-12 before Virginia's 13-8 run midway through the game gave the Cavaliers a 25-21 advantage. Duke battled back to tie it at 28 all and would fend off a game point for Virginia at 29-28. After the Blue Devils tied the score at 29-29, Duke scored four of the game's final six points to take a 2-0 lead with a 33-31 game two victory. Sophomore Sue Carls paced the offense in game two with five kills on seven swings for a .714 hitting percentage. Norman and senior Tealle Hunkus added four kills apiece while Hausfeld dished out 15 assists in the second game.

Game three saw Duke and Virginia trade the first 32 points of the game with neither team grabbing more than a two-point lead. With the score knotted at 16 all, the Blue Devils went on a 13-5 run to take a 29-21 advantage before closing out the match with a 30-23 game three victory. Freshman Rachael Moss led the attack, collecting eight kills and hitting .400 in the final game while Hunkus added six kills and a .417 attack percentage. Hausfeld handed out 19 assists in the third game alone as the Blue Devils hit .319 as a team.

Hunkus finished with a match-high 14 kills while Moss had 13, Norman had 11, Carls had 10 and junior Carrie DeMange added six. Hausfeld led the way with a match-high 50 assists while adding eight digs and three kills.

Junior Jenny Shull anchored the Duke defense with a match-high 11 digs. Hunkus finished with nine digs, DeMange had eight digs and four blocks, Moss contributed eight digs and three blocks and Norman tallied four blocks in the victory. Senior Polly Bendush finished with a match-high three service aces while Hunkus added two.

The Blue Devils also snapped Virginia's school-record eight-match conference winning streak with the 3-0 sweep.

“We serve received really well tonight,” Nagel added. “We controlled the ball when we had a chance to touch it so we could run our offense the way we wanted to.”

Duke remains on the road to face Virginia Tech tomorrow night at 7 p.m. The Blue Devils will then close out the regular season by hosting Florida State and Miami Nov. 22 and 24 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

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