Duke Edged by Wake Forest in Five

Saturday, March 27

Syracuse, N.Y.

2:30 PM

Duke University

9-10,7-7ACC

Wake Forest

1-13,1-12ACC

Wake Forest

Duke

Duke Edged by Wake Forest in Five

3/27/2021 5:27:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The Duke volleyball team dropped a 3-2 decision (21-25, 25-11, 19-25, 25-20, 13-15) to Wake Forest Saturday afternoon at the Women's Gym in Syracuse, N.Y.

Saturday marks Duke's third five-set match in four games.

"Wake Forest played strong defense today and kept their offense coming too," head coach Jolene Nagel said. "We did some great things as well, but started out slow offensively and needed to play more consistently throughout the match to be successful."

Duke (9-10, 7-7 ACC) was led by three in double-digit kills with Gracie Johnson (12), Lily Cooper (12) and Ade Owokoniran (10). Cooper's day saw only two errors as she hit an impressive .500 percent as Duke hit just .181 for the match.

At the net, Georgia Stavrinides brought in six blocks while Payton Schwantz added four. Setter Alex Springate dished 28 assists as libero Mackenzie Cole picked up 14 digs to Springate's 13.

Wake Forest was led by Ashley Slater with 23 kills and 11 digs.

The Blue Devils struggled to find their rhythm offensively in the opening set with a negative hitting percentage but bounced back in the second to hit .212. Cooper collected three kills on no errors to hit 1.000 as Stavrinides had a big set on the blocking front with one solo and three assisted.

The Demon Deacons hit an impressive .500 percent in the third set with 15 kills on 26 attempts.

Both teams were solid in the fourth frame as the Blue Devils posted a .371 hitting percentage as Springate dished 10 assists on 15 kills.

In the decisive fifth set, Duke trailed, 5-4, before Sydney Yap registered an ace to tie it up (5-5). Wake Forest's Slater tallied her 20th kill to extend its lead (8-5), forcing Duke into a timeout. Out of the timeout, Cooper notched her 12th kill of the marathon match off a nice slide set from Springate before Owokoniran knocked down back-to-back kills to cut into Wake's lead (11-9).

The Demon Deacon's pushed their lead to three (13-10) as Duke took its last timeout of the contest. Johnson came up with three crucial kills to cut the lead to one, but an attack error gave Wake its first win of the year.

Duke will take on Syracuse Sunday at 1 p.m. to close out the weekend.

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

#GoDuke