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Volleyball
at Mississippi State
Saturday, September 3
Stanford, Calif.
8:00 PM
Duke University
1
at
3
Stanford
No. 18 Duke Falls to No. 6 Stanford in Top-25 Match
9/4/2011 12:21:00 AM | Volleyball
STANFORD, Calif. - No. 6 Stanford amassed 104 digs to stifle No. 18 Duke in a 3-1 (25-20, 19-25, 25-17, 25-15) victory on Saturday night at Maples Pavilion in the final match of the Stanford Invitational.
The Blue Devils (4-2) put up their own strong defensive performance, but the Cardinal (4-0) averaged 26 digs per set on their home court to come out on top. All-ACC Duke libero and all-tournament selection Ali McCurdy led all players with 31 digs - her first 30-dig performance of the season - and five Blue Devils had at least 10 digs. Stanford, however, benefited from a 24-kill, 22-dig performance from outside hitter Rachel Williams, who gave Duke trouble on both sides of the ball in her first career 20-20 performance.
Williams was named MVP of the Stanford Invitational and made just one error while taking 60 of her team's 176 attacks. She led a Stanford offense that hit .295 as a team and made just 12 errors the entire match.
Williams' performance was enough to outpace double-digit kills from Duke junior Megan Hendrickson (15) and seniors Amanda Robertson (12) and Sophia Dunworth (10). Dunworth, who recorded her 1,000th career kill on Friday night against Saint Mary's, has now given Duke at least nine kills in every match this season.
"I think coming off of last night, we controlled the ball and passed a lot better against Stanford," Duke head coach Jolene Nagel said. "We saw some really great things tonight from our team, and we showed what we're capable of.
Coming back from a disappointing performance last night, it was great to see this entire team rebound the way that they did. It really told us a lot and showed that everyone is working for the same thing. If we can give that kind of effort every day, we're going to do some great things."
Stanford took the opener 25-20, but the Blue Devils responded by hitting .326 in game two on the way to a 25-19 victory. Led by All-America setter Kellie Catanch, Duke put down 19 kills, made just three attack errors and led by as much as eight points. McCurdy came up big defensively with 11 digs, Hendrickson led the team with six kills and Jeme Obeime and Robertson both added four kills.
The Cardinal would not be held down for long, however, as they hit .383 the rest of the way to win sets three and four. Williams had 15 kills during that span.
The Blue Devils will take on another California team on Thursday, Sept. 8, but will do so in their home gym in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Ranked 20th in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll, San Diego comes to Durham, N.C., where Duke is 132-22 (.857) since 2000.
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