Duke Rallies from Behind to Defeat West Virginia, 3-2

Saturday, September 2

Durham, N.C.

4 p.m.

Duke University

3-2,0-0ACC

West Virginia

2-4,0-0Big 12

West Virginia

Duke

Photo by: Nat LeDonne / Duke Athletics

Duke Rallies from Behind to Defeat West Virginia, 3-2

9/2/2023 8:47:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

DURHAM - The Duke volleyball team rallied to take down West Virginia, 3-2 (25-18, 23-25, 23-25, 25-23, 18-16), in a five-set thriller Saturday afternoon at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Duke bounced back from trailing 10-3 in the fifth set to secure the marathon match over its Big 12 opponent. The Blue Devils are 3-2 to start the season.

Kerry Keefe and Jess Robinson combined for 39 kills and committed only six combined errors to help push the Blue Devils past the Mountaineers. Robinson knocked down a career-high 21 kills to hit .643 percent while Keefe added 18 to post a .417 clip.

Setter Emma Worthington dished 46 dimes, while libero Madison Bryant racked up 21 digs to Worthington's 15. At the net, Lizzie Fleming and Robinson each posted six total blocks. Rachel Richardson tied her career high of three aces.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Duke struggled to find its offense in the first set and trailed 15-9. A 5-0 Duke scoring run forced West Virginia into its first timeout of the set. Worthington tallied two early aces as Duke went on a 16-3 run to close out the first set with a 1-0 lead in the match.
West Virginia responded to hit .333 percent in the second frame to even the score at one set apiece.
Duke's defense started to come alive in the third set as it tallied eight blocks — Fleming, Keefe and Robinson each recorded two. The Mountaineers notched five aces to help them take a 2-1 advantage heading into the fourth.
With the match potentially on the line, Duke responded well to even the score (2-2). As a team, the Blue Devils knocked down 14 kills and made just one mistake on 40 swings to hit .325 percent in the fourth set. Robinson hit a flawless 1.000 percent to Keefe's .583.
Trailing 10-3 in the fifth and final set, the Blue Devils showed resiliency in front of their home crowd. As a team, the Blue Devils played to a .350 percent as Richardson's serve came in clutch with two aces. Robinson was Duke's go-to offensive threat in the fifth frame and recorded six kills to hit .625 percent.

NOTABLES

The all-time series against West Virginia moves to 9-1 in favor of Duke.
This was head coach Jolene Nagel's 686th career win and her 483rd at the helm of the Blue Devils.
As a team, Duke hit .237 percent for the match.
Worthington reached 40 or more assists for the 12th time in her career.
Fleming now owns 53 games with four or more blocks.
With her ace tonight, Gracie Johnson now owns 133 for her career to rank eighth in program history.
Six different Blue Devils registered an ace — the 11 aces were the most this season.
Six different Blue Devils recorded a block — the 12 total team blocks were the most this season.
The match featured 37 ties and 22 lead changes — the third set featured 16 ties.
The Mountaineers were led by Hailey Green with 20 kills.

QUOTES

"I'm thrilled for this team to come from behind in the match and be down big in set five and find the resilience needed to keep playing hard. I'm happy they were able to do so and experienced the fact that it can be done. Our serve gave us a chance to be successful today." - head coach Jolene Nagel