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6 PM
Volleyball
at Syracuse
Saturday, September 18
Durham, N.C.
2:30 PM
Duke University
3
vs
0
Cornell
Duke Beats Cornell to Win Three Straight
9/18/2021 6:08:00 PM | Volleyball
DURHAM – The Duke volleyball team continued its success at home by securing its seventh home victory as the Blue Devils swept Cornell 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-20) Saturday afternoon at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
With the victory, head coach Jolene Nagel's squad improves to 9-2 and have won three in a row as the Big Red dip to 4-4.
Offensively, Duke was led by senior Ade Owokoniran with 11 kills and junior Gracie Johnson with 10 and no errors. Junior Lizzie Fleming added nine kills and no errors to hit .364 while rookie Rylie Kadel added seven. Senior setter Alex Springate dished 32 assists while libero Mackenzie Cole picked up 18 digs to Johnson's 15. At the net, Fleming paced the Blue Devils with four blocks while Kadel added two.
Today's performance by Johnson also marked her third double-double this season.
All three of the sets were quite close throughout the match. Duke led 22-18 in the first set before Cornell strung together a 4-0 run, forcing Nagel into a timeout. The Blue Devils refocused and won three of the last four points to take a 1-0 lead which included Sydney Yap's ace to bring up set point. As a team, Duke hit .312 percent in the opening frame.
A crucial moment in the second set was an overturned call in favor of the Blue Devils. The point, originally awarded to Cornell to tie the match (14-14), forced Nagel and her staff to challenge the play and was ultimately overturned to give Duke the 15-13. Duke used the momentum to its advantage, but the Big Red clawed back with a 4-0 run to pull within one (21-20). Owokoniran tallied another kill before a couple of Cornell errors helped Duke take a 2-0 lead.
Duke led 24-16 in the third set but couldn't convert on five set points. The Big Red came back (24-20) but a service error proved to be the difference as Duke took a 3-0 sweep.
Cornell was led by Madison Baptiste with eight kills as three players registered 10+ digs.
Cole, Fleming and Owokoniran were named to the Duke Classic All-Tournament Team as well as Jovana Stekovic (Long Island), Anastasia Scott (Long Island), Jillienne Bennett (Cornell), Casey Justus (Cornell) and Lauren Janok (NC Central).
Duke will now turn its attention to conference play and will welcome Boston College and Syracuse for Friday and Sunday matches at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
For more information on Duke volleyball, follow the Blue Devils on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching for "DukeVB".
#GoDuke
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