Volleyball Releases 2009 Schedule

DURHAM, N.C. ? Thirteen home matches, including a showdown with defending NCAA Champion Penn State, highlight the Duke volleyball team's 2009 schedule, head coach Jolene Nagel announced.

After winning a share of the ACC Championship and advancing into the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2008, Duke will play six NCAA Tournament teams during the 2009 campaign, four of which also advanced into the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Along with a conference schedule that features bouts against North Carolina and Clemson, Duke will also take on Penn State, Colorado State, Ohio and Liberty, each of which earned berths to the NCAA Volleyball Tournament in 2008.

“As we look at our 2009 schedule, we are excited for the challenges ahead,” Nagel said of the schedule, which features seven matches against teams that finished among the top-40 in the NCAA RPI. “The team worked very hard in the spring to come together as a unit and really enjoyed the time together developing.”

Following preseason tournaments at Wisconsin and Georgia, the Blue Devils will host the 12th annual Duke Invitational on Sept. 11-12 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Among the invitees are defending NCAA Champion Penn State, which went a perfect 38-0 without losing a single set in 2008. Also making the trip to Durham will be College of Charleston, which won the Southern Conference regular season championship in 2008, and Loyola (MD).

With a group of five returning starters, 11 returning letterwinners and a recruiting class that was ranked the 16th-best in the country by PrepVolleyball.com, Duke will play in four tournaments before opening the 20-match ACC schedule. Among those are the season-opening InnTower Invitational, hosted by Wisconsin, the Georgia Dawgs Invitational, hosted by Georgia, and the Black & Gold Challenge, hosted by Wake Forest.

“Our out of conference schedule includes high level competition, which we look to grow from in order to better prepare ourselves for the ACC regular season as well as the postseason,” Nagel said. “The schedule allows us to compete against some of the best in the country and will truly help us get stronger as we aim to reach our full potential as a group.”

At the InnTower Invitational in Madison, Wis., Duke will open the 2009 season against Wisconsin on Friday, August 28, before taking on South Dakota and defending MAC Champion Ohio on Saturday, August 29.

Duke then heads to Athens, Ga., to compete in the Georgia Dawgs Invitational on Sept. 4-5. Duke will open that tournament against Georgia on Friday, Sept. 4, and then will face South Alabama and Tennessee State on Sept. 5

A single home match against Colorado State in Cameron Indoor Stadium follows the Georgia Dawgs Invitational. The Rams, who were ranked as high as 12th in the AVCA poll in 2008, took second in the MWC in 2008 and advanced into the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year.

The match against the Rams will prime the Blue Devils for the 12th annual Duke Invitational where Duke opens against College of Charleston on Friday, Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. Saturday's action will feature Duke against Loyola (MD) in the first match of the day at 10 a.m. to set the stage for the highlight of the tournament, which pits Duke against Penn State at 7 p.m.

The Black & Gold Challenge in Winston-Salem, N.C., then awaits the Blue Devils where they will open against host Wake Forest on Friday, Sept. 18, in their first ACC match of the year. Duke then will take a brief break from conference competition to square off against Liberty and Appalachian State in the completion of the tournament.

The two non-conference bouts at the Black & Gold Challenge will be the last of the season for Duke, as the Blue Devils follow with a road series at Maryland and Boston College on Sept. 25 and 27 and then come back home to face Virginia and Virginia Tech in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Oct. 2-3.

Another home weekend awaits the Blue Devils on Oct. 9-10 when Miami and Florida State come to town. Miami, in a breakout year for the program, went 26-6 in 2008 and 14-6 in the ACC.

Following the showdown against the ACC's Florida-based squads, Duke will take on in-state rivals North Carolina and NC State on Oct. 16-17 on the road. The match against the Tar Heels, who advanced to the NCAA Tournament last year after splitting the ACC Championship with the Blue Devils, kicks off the weekend on that Friday and will have one half of a point in the Carlyle Cup competition on the line.

Two more away matches at Clemson and Georgia Tech, which could be Duke's toughest road trip of the year, will follow on Oct. 23-24. Clemson, which is just one season removed from an ACC Championship, advanced to the NCAA Tournament along with Duke and North Carolina in 2008.

Duke will come back home on Oct. 30-31 after two weeks of road matches to face Boston College and Maryland for the second time. Two more road trips will follow, with Duke heading south on Nov. 6-8 to face Florida State and Miami and then to Virginia on Nov. 13-14 to take on Virginia Tech and Virginia.

Duke will close out the regular season with three straight matches against North Carolina teams. The first of those will be against NC State on Nov. 20 in Cameron Indoor Stadium, while the second showdown against the Tar Heels will take place on Saturday, Nov. 21. The regular season comes to a close on Tuesday, Nov. 24 when Duke hosts Wake Forest in the final home match of the year.

-d-u-k-e-

Volleyball Releases 2009 Schedule

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