Blue Devils Top Mountaineers 3-1

Friday, September 19

Durham, N.C.

6:30 PM

Duke University

West Virginia

Blue Devils Top Mountaineers 3-1

9/19/2014 9:39:00 PM | Volleyball

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. – The Duke volleyball team recovered from a slow start to defeat West Virginia 3-1 (17-25, 25-23, 25-13, 25-15) Friday evening at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“I felt we needed to execute and play our game," said head coach Jolene Nagel. "Certainly when we came out in that first set, we were making a lot of errors. I thought we were very tentative and we weren't communicating very well. We had a very, very slow start. But thank goodness we started to make some plays. We started to make some blocks. We started to serve receive a little bit better. Things began to happen for us and then we relaxed a little bit and got into a rhythm.”

Duke snapped West Virginia's 10-match win streak and improved to 7-3 overall. The Blue Devils also remained undefeated at home at 5-0. West Virginia dropped to 10-2 on the year.

Junior Emily Sklar led a trio of Blue Devils in double-digit kills, finishing the match with 17. Sklar also added nine digs and two aces. Junior Breanna Atkinson and senior Jeme Obeime chipped in with 10 kills each, while sophomore Alyse Whitaker added nine kills and four blocks to help the Duke cause.

Atkinson and sophomore Sasha Karelov had three aces each as the Blue Devils totaled 10 aces to just two from the Mountaineers. Karelov also finished with a match-high 19 digs.

Duke stumbled early, dropping the first set 25-17. West Virginia totaled 5.0 blocks in the opening set and limited Duke to a .000 hitting percentage.

Down 12-11 in the second set, Duke put together a 7-1 stretch, including three Sklar kills and a pair of Karelov aces. West Virginia chipped away at the lead and pulled within a point at 23-22. A WVU attack error put the set within reach, and Atkinson hammered down the kill to seal the 25-23 victory.

The Blue Devils committed 19 of their 23 attack errors over the first two sets before finding their offensive rhythm the final two frames. Duke posted a .429 hitting percentage and limited West Virginia to a .062 clip in the Blue Devils' 25-13 third set win. Duke led 9-3 early and never looked back, securing a 2-1 overall advantage. Sklar dropped five kills without an error to pace the Blue Devil attack.

Duke amassed 14 kills on .382 hitting in the fourth and final frame, a 25-15 decision that sealed the match. Two of Atkinson's aces came in an 8-3 Duke run that turned a 5-6 deficit into a 13-9 lead. Atkinson, Obeime and Sklar combined for 12 of Duke's 14, fourth-set kills as the trio did not post an attack error in the frame.

Jordan Anderson paced the Mountaineers with a match-high 18 kills on 49 attempts to go along with seven digs, three blocks and an ace.

The Blue Devils return to action Saturday, Sept. 20 at 6:30 p.m. against Oklahoma in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Saturday's match is Duke's final non-conference contest of the 2014 season.

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