Duke Defeats Coastal Carolina in Five to Open Season

Friday, August 27

Conway, SC

6 PM

Duke University

1-0,0-0ACC

Coastal Carolina

0-1,0-0Sun Belt

Duke

Coastal Carolina

Duke Defeats Coastal Carolina in Five to Open Season

8/27/2021 9:46:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

CONWAY, S.C. – The Duke volleyball team opened the 2021 slate on a high note Friday as they came back to defeat Coastal Carolina 3-2 (17-25, 23-25, 25-21, 25-17, 15-9) in a five-set thriller in Conway, S.C. The Blue Devils rallied from a 2-0 deficit to secure their first win of the fall.

Duke moves to 1-0 in the early season and have now won nine of its last 11 season openers.

"I'm really excited to see the character of our team out there tonight," head coach Jolene Nagel said. "We had a shaky start and went down 2-0 by not playing our best, but we were able to come back and get the match in five. Coastal Carolina is a really good team and they will beat some good teams this year. It was a great win for us to start the season. Our team was challenged, we had to make some adjustments and it was really exciting to see our team get this win."

The Blue Devils were led by senior outside hitter Ade Owokoniran with 16 kills followed by junior middle hitter Lizzie Fleming with 13 kills and just one error to hit an impressive .429 percent. Senior setter Alex Springate dished 41 assists as she found eight Blue Devils as Duke hit .387 in the fourth set.

Senior libero Mackenzie Cole picked up 26 digs on the defensive end as Fleming got it done at the net with two blocks. Graduate student Payton Schwantz added eight kills as she hit .333 percent while junior Gracie Johnson notched 18 digs, just one off her career high.

Rookies Rachel Richardson and Nikki Underwood made their Duke debuts in Conway.

Duke struggled to find its rhythm in the first two frames with a combined 14 errors before committing only seven in the last three sets.

Coastal Carolina led 6-4 in the third set before a 5-0 run helped spark Duke's momentum. Owokoniran tallied five kills to help spearhead Duke's offense to hit .344 percent in this set.

Fleming got it done on both sides of the ball in the fourth set with five kills and a block. The Blue Devils racked up four aces from Mackenzie Cole, Taylor Cole, Fleming and Underwood to put the Chanticleers on their heels.

The Chanticleers hit -.167 in the decisive fifth set to help Duke take the match.

Coastal Carolina was led by Ani Bozdeva with 19 kills.

"We are going to turn the page and will start to focus on Iowa," Nagel said. "We have to have proper recovery tonight, get some rest and familiarize themselves with Iowa. We will reconvene tomorrow and make sure we're focusing on the right things, and our team can do that."

Duke will take on Iowa Saturday at 1 p.m., to close out the Coastal Carolina Invitational.

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

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