Norman Records 1,000th Career Kill In 3-0 Win Over Maryland

Friday, October 24

Durham, N.C.

7:00 p.m.

Duke University

Maryland

Duke Falls 3-0 At North Carolina In Defensive Struggle

Norman Records 1,000th Career Kill In 3-0 Win Over Maryland

10/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. ? Jourdan Norman put down 11 kills, including the 1,000th of her four-year career, during the Duke volleyball team's 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-18) sweep over Maryland Friday evening in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Norman became just the 20th player in Duke history to reach the 1,000-kill plateau after connecting on 11 of her 23 attacks against the Terrapins (5-17, 1-9 ACC). She made just one error on the night to finish with a .435 hitting percentage and contributed to a .270 clip put up by the Blue Devils (16-6, 7-3 ACC). Norman, who also holds Duke's career, season and single-match block records, also helped out on three of Duke's five blocks to run her career total in the category to 574.

Maryland had trouble containing Norman and fellow middle blocker Becci Burling all night as the duo combined for 22 kills and a .476 hitting percentage. Burling matched Norman with 22 kills at a .526 clip and also worked her way in on a pair of blocks. The performance gives Burling 227 kills for the season which is the second-most on the team as she continues to break out during her sophomore campaign.

“We've been working really hard,” head coach Jolene Nagel said. “Our team has been traveling a lot, but we were able to get back into our home gym this week and have some strong practices. It was more mentally exhausting than physically, and that really helped us tonight, I think.”

Sue Carls and Rachael Moss also found their way in on the offensive foray with Carls contributing eight kills and Moss seven. Moss, who is also a member of Duke's 1,000-kill club, ran her team-leading kill total to 288. Setter Kellie Catanach has made much of that production possible this season, and she continued to effectlvely direct Duke's offense with 37 assists and four kills Friday.

“I'm proud of our team, how we hung tough and played every point in hand, especially in the first set when we got behind,” Nagel said. “We did too much of that tonight, though, and we need to make sure we're not playing catch-up like we did.”

Maryland got the best of Duke to start the match and took a commanding lead in the first set, but saw their momentum come to a halt at the hands of sophomore libero Claire Smalzer. Smalzer played a big part in slowing down the Terrapin offense down as she recorded nine digs in the first set on the way to a three-set high 24 for the match. The performance marked the fourth straight outing in which Smalzer reached 20 digs and the seventh time in her last nine matches that she has reached that mark.

The Terps looked to be in prime position to upset the Blue Devils in the first set after jumping out to a 16-9 lead, but could not hold down the Blue Devils who eventually recovered to take the opener 25-22. Despite looking at an opening-set loss with the score at 19-14 in favor of Maryland, Duke kept its focus and rallied with an 11-3 run to overcome the deficit and win the match. After Maryland hit over .450 for the first half of the match, the Blue Devils finally found a way to shut down the Terp offense, which in turn allowed Duke's offense to open up and take over. Led by Norman, who went 6-for-12 attacking without an error, Duke ended up with a .277 team hitting percentage in the frame while holding Maryland to a .222 clip. Carls also went 5-for-10 with a pair of blocks, while Smalzer racked up nine digs in the effort.

Maryland was not deterred after giving away the lead, though, and jumped out to a 5-0 advantage in the second set. Once again, however, Duke rallied and tied the score at 10-10 before breaking out with a 10-3 run that gave the Blue Devils a comfortable 20-13 lead. Errors plagued the Terps in the second set as they combined to give away 15 points, seven of which came during Duke's run. Meanwhile, Maryland also had trouble keeping track of Burling, who put down four of her five attacks for a .800 clip in the set, which Duke went on to win 25-19.

The second-set win took the air out of Maryland's sails, as the Blue Devils went ahead 6-5 in the third frame and never looked back on the way to at 25-18 match-clinching win. Catanach spread the ball around for the Blue Devils and led them to a .349 hitting percentage with Burling, Moss and Norman contributing four kills apiece. Catanach also put down three kills of her own while freshman Sophia Dunworth squeezed in two service aces. Senior Aana Wherry also picked up six of her 13 digs in the third set while Smalzer recorded seven.

“I feel like we executed some of the things we've been working on much better tonight,” Nagel said. “Things like controlling easy digs and free balls, we really took advantage of. I still feel like we could have executed a little bit better in our serve receive and blocking ? we just need to be more consistent.”

With the win, Duke temporarily moves into a five-way tie for first place in the ACC as the conference's three top teams ? Virginia Tech, Clemson and Miami ? all lost Friday evening. Georgia Tech also won along with Duke, giving those five teams matching 7-3 conference records.

Duke will continue its weekend-long homestand on Saturday with a 7 p.m. bout against Boston College. The Blue Devils remain undefeated against the Eagles since their first meeting in 2004, going 6-0 against Boston College during that time.

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