Carls' Heroics Lead Duke To 3-2 Win Over Virginia

Friday, October 17

Charlottesville, Va.

7:00 p.m.

Duke University

Virginia

Carls' Heroics Lead Duke To 3-2 Win Over Virginia

10/17/2008 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball

By: Duke Sports Information

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. ? Senior Sue Carls hammered 20 kills, including five in a 15-12 set five victory, to lead the Duke volleyball team to a 3-2 (30-28, 22-25, 25-23, 26-28, 15-12) win over Virginia Friday evening at Memorial Gymnasium.

Carls reached the 20-kill plateau for the first time in her four-year career and made just one error on her 43 attacks to finish with a match-high .442 hitting percentage. She locked up the win for the Blue Devils (14-6, 5-3 ACC) with five kills on seven attacks in the finale, with her final three coming in succession to break open a narrow 12-11 Duke lead and give Duke the final three points they needed to seal the win.

But while Carls locked up the fifth-set win, junior Rachael Moss and sophomore Becci Burling helped get the Blue Devils there as they combined for 32 kills in the match. Moss had 17 of those along with 22 digs and a season-high five service aces for her team-leading 11th double-double of the year. Burling, meanwhile, accounted for the other 15 kills, including three in the fifth set, along with four blocks, five assists and her 10th service ace of the season.

“This was just a very close match to watch all the way through,” Duke head coach Jolene Nagel said. “Every game was close and really competitive. I was happy that our team kept fighting the whole night, because that's exactly what they had to do to get this road win in the ACC. We didn't necessarily play our best volleyball, but we certainly kept fighting hard and kept our focus on what we needed to do.”

With Carls, Moss, Burling and setter Kellie Catanach dissecting Virginia's defense, sophomore libero Claire Smalzer held the Cavalier defense in check by picking up a career-high 35 digs to join the 30-dig club for the second time this season. Smalzer also added five assists and 32 errorless service receptions to compliment a nine-block effort by Duke that saw Burling, Catanach and senior Jourdan Norman work their way in on four stops apiece.

Catanach would also record a double-double ? her seventh of the season ? by adding 12 digs to her 57 assists. Senior Aana Wherry and junior Brittany Staffeil matched her defensively with 14 digs apiece which was a career-high for Staffeil. Wherry would also add a service ace, which was one of nine in the match for Duke, tying a season-high.

Duke held Virginia to a .180 hitting percentage, marking the 13th time this season that the Blue Devils held an opponent to a .200 clip or less. Duke forced 33 Cavalier attack errors, which was just three shy of a season-high. The Blue Devils forced Virginia to spread the ball around as five Cavaliers added 11 or more kills with Simone Asque leading the way with 17. Setters Marlow Bruneau and Kelly Irvin combined for 57 assists, but were telegraphed all night by the Blue Devils and saw just 32 percent of her set attempts go down for kills.

“I was really pleased with our defense,” Nagel said. “Our team dug a lot of balls, and so did Virginia. Our blocking was better tonight though, as it has been lately. Our serving kept us in the game quite a bit too.”

Virginia held the momentum early in the match after taking an 8-3 lead in the first set following a 4-0 run, but allowed the Blue Devils to chip away at the lead before they eventually tied the frame at 13-13. Virginia would again jump ahead 16-14, but could not contain Moss and Carls, who went on to hammer five kills apiece. Smalzer also played a big role in the comeback, picking up 16 digs and seven errorless serve receptions. After the Blue Devils pulled ahead 17-16, the teams traded points until Duke came within one point of clinching the set with a 25-24 lead. Beth Shelton kept Virginia in the game, however, with a well-timed kill that tied the score once again. After more point-swapping, Norman connected on her second kill to put Duke ahead 29-28 before Catanach snuck one past the Cavaliers to close out the frame.

Virginia rebounded to win the second set 25-22 thanks to an errorless 5-for-10 effort from Shannon Davis and a 4-for-7 performance from Sydney Hill. Virginia trailed for the first half of the match before tying it up at 15-15. The Cavs would eventually earn their largest lead of the set at 23-21 before Hill closed it out with her fourth kill.

Burling and Moss took over for Duke in the third set and combined for 11 points with Burling getting five of hers on kills and Moss coming through with a pair of aces, three kills and a block. Carls also chipped in four kills and a block while Catanach directed the offense to a .441 hitting percentage. Duke made just one attack error in the frame while forcing six from Virginia, three of which were from blocks. Virginia jumped out to a 16-12 lead, but gave way to a 4-0 run by the Blue Devils that tied the score and gave them the window they needed to eventually jump ahead 22-21. With the lead in hand, Moss, Catanach and Norman each had a kill to stifle Virginia's comeback effort and lock up the 25-23 win.

Trailing 2-1, the Cavaliers turned up their defense and held Duke to a match-low .066 hitting percentage by blocking 5.5 attacks and allowing just 15 of Duke's 61 attacks to hit the floor. Brittani Rendina had eight digs in the effort while Bruneau put back three blocks, two of which were solo jobs.

Carls came through for duke when it mattered though, taking over in the fifth set to lead the Blue Devils to a match-clinching 15-12 win. Duke turned in a .286 hitting percentage in the final after making just two attack errors.

Duke will continue its road weekend in The Old Dominion State with a meeting with ACC leader Virginia Tech (15-3, 6-1 ACC) on Saturday. The Blue Devils bring a five-match win streak against the Hokies into tomorrow's contest, which begins at 6 p.m. and will air live at www.ACCSelect.com.

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