Duke Powers Through to Win Two on Friday

Friday, September 3

Durham, N.C.

10 AM

Duke University

4-0,0-0ACC

Howard

0-2,0-0MEAC

Howard

Duke

Duke Powers Through to Win Two on Friday

9/3/2021 10:34:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Photo Gallery

DURHAM – The Duke volleyball team opened the Duke Invitational Friday with two victories to remain undefeated in the 2021 season. The Blue Devils defeated Howard (3-1) before sweeping Miami (OH) 3-0 in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

With the wins, the Blue Devils move to 5-0 this fall.

"[I was] very excited to see our team in action in Cameron and we really appreciate the fan support this evening," head coach Jolene Nagel said. "Our team had a solid performance this morning and also tonight. Our serve receive was steady throughout the day and our team handled stressful situations in a confident manner. It is early in the season and we are learning much about our team in these out of conference matches. Our upperclassmen are really leading and from all of the court experience they have had in the past it is coming together now."

GAME 1 | DUKE vs. HOWARD
Duke secured a 3-1 victory (20-25, 25-21, 25-13, 25-12) against Howard to open the first of two days at the Duke Invitational. The Blue Devils got off to a slower start in the morning match, dropping the first set, but bounced back to take the next three and remain 4-0 for the season.

Georgia Stavrinides led the Blue Devils with 12 kills and just two errors to hit .435 percent, followed by freshman Rylie Kadel (10) and Lizzie Fleming (9). Once again, Fleming was on fire with zero errors as she hit .474 percent. Defensively for Duke, libero Mackenzie Cole picked up 17 digs to Gracie Johnson's 15 to help limit Howard to just a .092 clip for the match. Sophomore Sydney Yap recorded a career-high five aces while setter Alex Springate dished 34 assists. Stavrinides also got it done on the defensive end with three blocks.

Howard put Duke on its heels in the first set as the Bison hit .290 to Duke's .030. The Blue Devils turned it around quickly in the next three sets as their defense limited the Bison to negative hitting percentages in the third and fourth sets.

The Bison were led by Cimone Woodard with 10 kills to hit .562 percent.

GAME 2 | DUKE vs. MIAMI (OH)
In front of a very loud Cameron Indoor Stadium crowd, the Blue Devils captured a 3-0 sweep (25-15, 28-26, 25-16) against Miami (OH). Duke's crowd was electric all evening and certainly helped push Nagel's squad to victory.

Ade Owokoniran paced Duke offensively with 13 kills, followed by Stavrinides and Fleming each with nine. For the third match in a row, Fleming recorded zero errors. Setter Springate dished 37 assists while Cole racked up 16 digs, bringing her total to 33 on Friday. At the net, Fleming was unstoppable and spearheaded a tough Duke block as she brought in five, followed by Johnson and Owokoniran with three each. As a team, Duke hit .244 percent to Miami (OH)'s .073 clip.

In the third and what would become the final set, the Blue Devils were all gas and no brakes with 14 kills and just two errors to hit .400 percent as four different players had three or more kills.

The Redhawks were led by Gaby Harper with eight kills.

Duke will close out its tournament weekend Saturday with College of Charleston at 2:30 p.m.

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

#GoDuke