Duke Falls to NC State in Five

Friday, February 26

Raleigh, N.C.

7:00 PM

Duke University

8-3,6-2ACC

NC State

5-4,4-4ACC

Duke

NC State

Duke Falls to NC State in Five

2/26/2021 10:11:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

RALEIGH, N.C. – The Duke volleyball team dropped a marathon five-set match, 3-2 (16-25, 25-14, 23-25, 25-23, 6-15) against NC State Friday evening at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, N.C.

With the loss, the Blue Devils are now 8-3 and snap a four-match win streak while the Wolfpack improve to 5-4.

For the third match in a row, Duke was led by Gracie Johnson and Ade Owokoniran with 14 and 11 kills, respectively. Johnson hit a whopping .444 percent with only two errors on 27 attempts while setter Alex Springate dished 24 assists.

On the defensive end, graduate student Franky Harrison racked up 20 digs while libero Mackenzie Cole added 17. As a team, Duke registered 72 total digs. At the net, junior Lily Cooper tallied four blocks while Johnson, Lizzie Fleming and Georgia Stavrinides each added three for 8.0 total team blocks.

Duke added seven aces, led by Cole with three, but had 13 service errors.

The Wolfpack came out strong to open the match as they hit .394 with 15 kills and just two errors in the first set.

Duke answered in the second set to win 25-14 with help from a .312 hitting percentage. Leading 20-10, the Wolfpack attempted to come back before Springate set up Harrison's kill to end the second and tie the match 1-1.

The Blue Devils led 19-13 in the third set but the Wolfpack won 12 of the next 16 points to give them the 25-23 win. After three, NC State led 2-1.

The fourth set proved to be another back-and-forth race as both squads had solid hitting percentages. Duke tallied six blocks in the fourth frame as Owokoniran and Stavirinides each picked up two and helped Duke tie it up at 2-2 heading into the final set.

The first to 15 wins in the fifth set and tonight that was the Wolfpack. Duke was limited to a -.050 hitting clip as NC State registered a .353 percentage with just one error. Duke trailed 9-6 and couldn't stop NC State, who went on a 6-0 run to end the match.

The Wolfpack were led by Melissa Evans with a whopping 24 kills and just eight errors.

Duke will travel to Chestnut Hill, Mass., to take on Boston College Friday, March 5 at 5 p.m.

For more information on Duke volleyball, follow the Blue Devils on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching for "DukeVB".

#GoDuke