Blue Devils Fall To Cal, 3-1, To End Season

Saturday, December 1

Durham, N.C.

5:00 p.m.

Duke University

California

Blue Devils Rebound With 3-0 Win Over Tennessee State

Blue Devils Fall To Cal, 3-1, To End Season

12/1/2007 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. ? One of the best seasons in Duke history came to a close as the 22nd-ranked Blue Devils fell to No. 7 Cal, 3-1 (28-30, 31-21, 30-25, 30-17) Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium in the second round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament. The Blue Devils finish with a 25-7 record while Cal advances to the Sweet 16 and currently has a 24-7 record.

The loss also ends the career of one of the best classes in Duke history. Shelley Capito, Carrie DeMange, Ali Hausfeld and Jenny Shull each can leave knowing they returned Duke to one of the dominant teams in the ACC and country.

Hausfeld had 44 assists and a season-high 10 kills while hitting .391 to go along with seven digs and four blocks. DeMange had 16 kills and 12 digs in her final collegiate game while Shull finished with 14 digs, four assists and an ace.

Rachael Moss led Duke with 19 kills and hit .324. She added nine digs and a pair of blocks. Jourdan Norman had seven kills and four blocks, Sue Carls had six kills and three assists and Aana Wherry had five kills and seven digs while freshman Claire Smalzer added 10 digs and a pair of assists for the Blue Devils.

Cal was led by Hana Cutura's 24 kills and Angie Pressey's 20 while Carli Lloyd had 65 assists, 17 digs and six blocks. Ellen Orchard had 12 kills and eight blocks as the Golden Bears outblocked Duke 20 to six on the evening.

DeMange, Hausfeld and Shull each completed one of the best seasons in Duke history at their respective positions as all three established new Duke season and career records. DeMange set a new Duke season record by becoming the first player in Duke history to record 600 kills in a season with 606. She broke Ashley Wacholder's 16 year old record of 564. Not only did Hausfeld become the first player in Duke history with 1,600 assists in a season, she became the first over 1,700, as well, finishing with 1,714 and breaking her own record of 1,590 from 2005. Shull broke Stephanie Istvan's record of 629 digs, finishing with 644.

All three are Duke's career leaders and in the top two in ACC history in those categories, as well. Hausfeld shattered the Duke career assist mark by over 1,000 assists and finished with 6,183, breaking Kristin Cambell's mark of 5,082 from 1994-97. Her total is good for second in ACC history. Shull finished with exactly 2,200 digs, surpassing Ashley Wacholder's record of 1,818 from 1991-94 and ties the career ACC mark. DeMange broke Wacholder's career kill record of 1,915 and her 1,976 career kills breaks the ACC record by seven.

Moss also became one of the first players in Duke history to record 400 or more kills and digs in a season. She finished with 491 kills, the seventh most in a single season in Duke history and 405 digs.

Moss came on strong for the Blue Devils in game one and picked up 10 of Duke's 20 kills on 16 attacks. Her efforts were enough to outpace a combined 13 kills from Pressey and Cutura as Duke held on for an opening 31-29 victory. The scoring margin in game one jumped to more than three just once at 9-5 and would not be any more than a single point after Cal fought back to a 23-23 tie. Duke kept up with the Golden Bears point-for-point before breaking a 29-29 tie on a kill from Moss and a game-clinching hitting error by Cal.

Duke put forth the same effort in game two, but could not overcome Cal's block as the Golden Bears put back eight stops to claim a 30-28 victory. Moss added five more kills for Duke, while DeMange contributed seven on 14 attacks. Orchard racked up five of her blocks in the second frame, while Lloyd contributed three. Cal overcame a six-point deficit at 21-15 to tie the match at 25-25 before fighting off a late Blue Devil rally with a pair of kills from Pressey and Orchard.

Cal stayed on track in game three and picked up four more blocks while hitting .341 in a 30-23 game three victory. Norman turned it on for the Blue Devils and finished a perfect 5-for-5 attacking, but it was not enough to overcome Orchard's 5-for-7, two-block performance.

Four more blocks by Cal and seven more kills from Cutura in game four would be the end for the Blue Devils. Hausfeld did all she could to keep Duke in the game and threw down six of her seven attacks for kills, but Cal kept the rest of the Blue Devils in check, holding them to a .100 hitting percentage in the final frame.

“I'm proud of this team and what they've done this season," head coach Jolene Nagel said. "They've made tremendous progress and they've set a new standard for this program, for Duke volleyball. Not only the seniors, because they've been huge in leading us in that direction, but the rest of the kids too because they could have been very disjointed and they weren't. We were a very together unit. The main thing is that the seniors led, but the others were there supporting and following."

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