Duke dominates All-ACC Volleyball team

[jimsumner]

Portions of ACC press release.

"Duke sophomore outside hitter Emily Sklar has been selected as the 2013 Atlantic Coast Conference Volleyball Player of the Year and headlines the All-ACC Volleyball First Team, as announced Wednesday by Commissioner John Swofford.

Duke senior libero Ali McCurdy has been named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year, and Duke’s Jolene Nagel was named the Coach of the Year. Virginia’s Jasmine Burton was chosen as the Freshman of the Year and headlines the six-person All-Freshman Team. The awards were decided based on a vote of the league’s 15 head coaches.

Sklar, a native of San Jose, Calif., ranks second in the conference with 3.96 kills per set. She is the eighth student-athlete from Duke to garner Player of the Year honors and the first since Kellie Catanach in 2010. Sklar helped lead the Blue Devils to their 11th ACC conference crown and its first since the 2010 campaign.

McCurdy has been named the ACC Defensive Player of the Year for the third consecutive season. A native of Tampa, Fla., McCurdy became the first student-athlete to win back-to-back individual awards in the conference last season, and now becomes the first individual to win an individual honor in three consecutive seasons. The senior libero’s 5.10 digs per set leads the ACC.

Duke’s Nagel led the Blue Devils to a 27-4, 18-2 ACC record in earning her fourth career ACC Coach of the Year honor (2001, 2006, 2010, 2013). Overall, Nagel has been at the helm for four (2001, 2006, 2010, 2013) of Duke’s 11 conference titles in program history. Under her guidance during the 2013 season, Duke saw six players named members of All-ACC teams, two earn major individual honors and the team achieve a ranking as high as No. 13 in the AVCA poll.

Eleven different teams are represented on the All-ACC Team, led by Duke’s five student-athletes. Four from Florida State and Miami were recognized, followed by three from Virginia and North Carolina, two from Maryland and Virginia Tech and one apiece from Clemson, Notre Dame, Pitt and Syracuse.

Joining Burton on the All-Freshman Team were Virginia’s Haley Kole, Duke’s Jordan Tucker, Clemson’s Leah Perri, Virginia Tech’s Lindsey Owens and North Carolina’s Abigail Curry.

Duke’s McCurdy was named to the All-ACC Team for the fourth time, just the 14th volleyball student-athlete in ACC history to accomplish that feat."
2013 All-ACC Volleyball First Team

Emily Sklar So. OH Duke

Ashley Neff # Sr. MB Florida State

Jovana Bjelica Sr. OH North Carolina

Moneshia Simmons Sr. OH Clemson

Savanah Leaf Jr. OH Miami

Silvi Uattara So. OH Syracuse

Victoria Hamsher Sr. MB Virginia Tech

Emani Sims ! Jr. MB Miami

Ali McCurdy % Sr. L Duke



2013 All-ACC Volleyball Second Team

Nicole Walch So. OH Florida State

Jeme Obeime Jr. OH Duke

Paige Neuenfeldt So. MB North Carolina

Elise Walch So. OH Florida State

Lauren Fuller So. S Virginia

Chelsea Cook Sr. MB Duke

Ashleigh Crutcher ! Jr. OH Maryland

Alexis Mourning ! Jr. MB Miami

Katie Mosher Jr. L Florida State



2013 All-ACC Volleyball Third Team

Jessica Wynn Jr. RS Pittsburgh

Jeni Houser Jr. MB Notre Dame

Kathryn Caine Jr. RS Virginia Tech

Maggie Deichmeister Jr. S Duke

Adreene Elliott Jr. MH Maryland

Tori Janowski Jr. OH Virginia

Victoria McPherson So. MB North Carolina

Jasmine Burton Fr. RS Virginia

Ryan Shaffer ! Sr. DS Miami



2013 All-ACC Volleyball Freshman Team

Jasmine Burton Fr. RS Virginia

Haley Kole Fr. OH Virginia

Jordan Tucker Fr. MB Duke

Leah Perri Fr. RS Clemson

Lindsey Owens Fr. OH Virginia Tech

Abigail Curry Fr. S North Carolina

[burnspbesq]

Congrats to all the Duke athletes who were justifiably honored by the ACC.

We need Emily playing like a POTY this weekend if we want to have a next weekend. She was a little bit off against State and Carolina last week.

[hughgs]

Congrats to all the Duke athletes who were justifiably honored by the ACC.

We need Emily playing like a POTY this weekend if we want to have a next weekend. She was a little bit off against State and Carolina last week.

As Jeme goes, so goes Duke.

Duke has two rotations where the setter is in the front row. If the other team gets on a run, odds are that Duke is in one of those two rotations. Jeme hits outside on both of those rotations and needs to come through for Duke to do well.

[BD80]

As Jeme goes, so goes Duke.

Duke has two rotations where the setter is in the front row. If the other team gets on a run, odds are that Duke is in one of those two rotations. Jeme hits outside on both of those rotations and needs to come through for Duke to do well.

Wouldn't it be three rotations? 3 front row spots + three back row spots? Jeme could be in the front 2 of those 3 rotations when the setter is located in the front row. It is usually blocking that is an issue when the setter is in front, as you still have a center hit and a strong side spiker, you just have the weak side hitting from the 10' line.

[DukieInKansas]

Congratulations to all the players that were honored. As a Duke fan, the year keeps getting better and better. Wonderful student-athletes that represent the university so well!

[hughgs]

Wouldn't it be three rotations? 3 front row spots + three back row spots? Jeme could be in the front 2 of those 3 rotations when the setter is located in the front row. It is usually blocking that is an issue when the setter is in front, as you still have a center hit and a strong side spiker, you just have the weak side hitting from the 10' line.

You're correct, I worded it poorly. There are two rotations that seem troublesome to Duke and those occur when the setter (Maggie) is front row with Jeme swinging outside.

During those rotations the blocking doesn't seemed to suffer. Maggie is 6-2, which puts her at the same height as some of the middle hitters, so blocking against the opponents outside hitter isn't that big of a problem.

When running hitters out of the back row you don't have a weak side hitter, instead you have 3 lanes from the back row. Usually Duke runs Sklar out of the middle lane, since she's playing middle back. In the 5-1 offense, with the setter in the front row, the weak side back row is covered by some one who can also do some setting. Even when the US men's Olympic team ran Timmons out of the back row (arguably one of the best back row hitters in the world) he would swing from about 1/3 of the way over.

Either way, during those two rotations can be troublesome. Hence by feeling that Duke goes as far as Jeme can take them.