08/30/2008 - Duke Sports Information

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Led by a combined 28 kills from Rita Liliom and Natalya Korobkova, the 14th-ranked Kansas State Wildcats got past Duke 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-18) on the second day of the Mortar Board Premier in Holloway, Ind. at Purdue University on Saturday.

Korobkova led No. 14 Kansas State (2-0) with 15 kills and committed just four attack errors on the way to a .407 hitting percentage. Behind her effort and a 7-for-13 performance from Megan Farr, the Wildcats managed to hit .311 as a team with 49 kills.

Duke (0-2, 0-0 ACC) will conclude play at the Purdue Mortar Board Premier this evening with a 5 p.m. bout against Tennessee State (0-2). A complete release and statistics of the final match will follow.

Kansas State was able to hold Duke to a .188 clip and seniors Sue Carls and Jourdan Norman to six kills each. Both Blue Devils finished with hitting percentages over .300, however, including a .500 (6-for-8, two errors) mark from Norman. Norman also made an impact at the nets once again for Duke and picked up four of Duke’s 5.5 blocks, giving her nine in Duke’s first two matches.

Freshman middle blocker Sophia Dunworth improved on Friday night’s six-kill outing with seven kills and a .353 hitting percentage against the Wildcats. Classmate and starting setter Kellie Catanach also helped out at the nets and contributed three blocks along with 23 assists and a pair of kills. Libero Claire Smalzer also reached double-digit digs with 11 on the afternoon.

The Blue Devils hung with Kansas State for all of game one and never fell behind by more than three points, but could not stop the Wildcat duo Liliom and Korobkova, who combined for 16 kills in the opening frame. Nine of those came from Liliom, who accounted for 10 total points in the set after contributing a solo block as well. Duke played mostly error-free in the opening set, making just four attack errors and one service fault, but could not break through Kansas State’s defense and hit just .227 in the opener.

Korobkova stayed hot through the second set and added seven more kills and a block which turned out to be the difference in the 25-19 victory that put Kansas State ahead 2-0. The Blue Devils began to warm up as well, however, and received four kills from Dunworth and three more from Carls who shared just one attack error in set two. The Blue Devils also managed 3.5 blocks in the set, including two assisted stops each from sophomore Becci Burling and Norman, but had trouble getting through the Wildcat defense. Of Duke’s 32 attacks, Kansas State allowed just 12 to touch the floor as setter Abby Fay led the way with eight digs.

The Blue Devils turned up their defense in set three, but Kansas State did the same and held on for a 25-18 win that locked up the 3-0 victory. Duke managed to cut Kansas State’s hitting percentage to .207 in the final set, but fell behind early after a 6-0 Wildcat run and could not make up ground in time. The defensive adjustments finally allowed the team to shut down Korobkova, who managed just one more kill, but Kansas State responded by shutting the door on Duke’s top three options of Norman, Carls and Rachael Moss, who combined for just six kills in the final frame.

“Kansas State is an excellent team with great size and a lot of weapons,” head coach Jolene Nagel said. “We were more relaxed today as we played our second match, but they were able to capitalize on a few of our vulnerabilities.”

“Playing against this level of competition has been great for us because it’s exposed some things early that we can work on right away in order to become the best team we can be.”

Duke will play one more match this evening at the Purdue Mortar Board Premier against Tennessee State at 5 p.m. The Tigers fell to Kansas State 3-0 on the first day of the tournament and 3-0 to 25th-ranked Purdue on Saturday morning.

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