Fall women's ball-oriented sports

Volleyball opens ACC play with a win over NC State behind 25 kills from first-year Ashby Zubchevich.

Then they lose to Wake.

RPI isn't up yet, but Massey Rating has Duke at No. 147.

Field hockey falls 0-1 at #6 Syracuse (can't win 'em all), then breezes past VCU 3-0.

Duke was ranked 7th heading into the weekend. All three losses are to higher-ranked teams. Northwestern is No. 1, Liberty (gack) is No. 5, Syracuse is No. 6. Next up: No. 3 UVA. Last game: No. 2 UNC.

Between those games: No. 18 JMU, No. 16 Louisville, just-dropped-out-of-rankings BC, unranked UConn, No. 13 Wake, unranked ODU.

The bad news: The only ranked team Duke has beaten is No. 10 (then No. 4) Maryland. They'll have some opportunities to change that and nail down a good tournament seed, though.

Is Wake having a fall for the ages? Seems like they're doing well in everything.
 
The volleyball showdown with UNC went as well as expected: 20-25, 15-25, 16-25.

If there's any consolation, it's that the top players on the team right now are underclassmen:

Sophomore Taylor Williams and freshman Ashley Zubchevich are tied for the team lead in kills. Zubchevich is also tied for the team lead in aces with sophomore libero (2024 All-Academy ACC) Mailinh Godschall, with Williams close behind.

Godschall leads the ACC in digs per set. Wow. She has 4.61 per set against 0.31 receiving errors per set.

It's hard to gauge how the big-time setter recruit, Charlotte Glass, is faring. She definitely has more sets per set ... um, assists per set ... than the other setters who've been rotating with her. Glass has played 40 sets; others have played 27 and 25.

So it's not as if the cupboard is bare. But how did the team get to this point?
 
Duke outshoots No. 2 UVA 9-2 in regulation but falls 1-0 in double OT.

If they keep playing defense at that level, they'll plow through the next six games and cruise into the tournament.
 
Well NOW the field hockey team has a win over a ranked opponent. 5-0 over #19 JMU. That'll do nicely.

The NCAA Tournament has 18 teams -- 10 conference champs, 8 at-large. Last year, the ACC got four of those at-large bids -- Virginia 13-4, BC at 14-6, Syracuse 13-6, Duke 12-6. This year, Duke is 7-4. You never want to write anyone off, but winning the season finale on the road at UNC is a big ask, so they can only afford one more loss, if that.

RPI has been released through Thursday's games ...

1. UNC (9-1; faces Duke Oct. 31 - BOO!)
2. UVA (8-0; beat Duke 1-0 in double OT)
3. Northwestern (9-0; beat Duke 1-0)
4. Harvard (8-0)
5. Liberty (8-1; beat Duke 4-3 in season opener)
6. Syracuse (8-2; beat Duke 1-0)
7. Princeton (5-3)
8. Wake Forest (7-2; faces Duke Oct. 24 in Durham)
9. Iowa (6-3)
10. Duke (6-3)
---

Below are all the other teams Duke has beaten or has yet to face:
13. JMU (5-0 Duke)
17. Maryland (2-1 Duke)
21. Boston College (Oct. 17)
24. Stanford (2-0 Duke)
25. Cal (2-0 Duke)
27. UConn (Oct. 19)
28. VCU (3-0 Duke)
29. Louisville (Oct. 10)
42. American (2-1 Duke)
60. William & Mary (9-0 Duke)
43. Old Dominion (Oct. 26)

So Wake is the big one. Win that, and barring any major upset (BC, UConn and ODU all have losing records), Duke's safe.
 
Volleyball: A win! A win! Straight sets on the road over a Clemson team with a 12-6 record. (Granted, 0-6 in the conference, but they were No. 42 in the RPI, so it's still a quality win. Duke was No. 224, so that's quite a difference.) Duke is now 2-4 in the conference after a Georgia Tech/Clemson road trip, with a Syracuse/BC junket coming up next.

Field hockey: Duke needed to rally from an 0-1 deficit to beat Louisville 2-1. The Cardinals are No. 29 in RPI. Duke is No. 10.
 
Bad news first:

Volleyball: 0-2 road trip, swept each time. They're 5-14.

Better news:

Field hockey: 2-0 road trip, beating BC 3-1 and UConn 1-0. The Huskies were No. 11 in the RPI. Eight of nine teams make the ACC Tournament, so that's not an issue. But the NCAA outlook may be murky. Duke was No. 8 in the RPI before the UConn game, but they'll finish against No. 7 Wake, No. 33 Old Dominion and No. 1 UNC. Wake is undefeated in the ACC, having upset UNC earlier this year. If they drop their two remaining ACC games, they'll be 11-6. Lose in the ACC Tournament, and that's seven losses -- more than any of the eight at-large teams last year.

Something I just now realized -- Duke will host the national semifinals and final. That has to be the biggest sports event on East Campus since the Duke family insisted on a 10-foot wall around the campus.
 
heyman25 said:
goduke.com

No. 8 Duke Blanks UConn, 1-0 - Duke University

Duke scored 1:25 into the second quarter and held off a tough UConn squad in the second half to post a 1-0 road victory over the Huskies Sunday afternoon in ...
goduke.com goduke.com
10 wins good road trip for field hockey
Click to expand...

They've been taking care of business in all their games against non-top 10 opposition.

Unfortunately, they play most of the top 10 -- in fact, they play everyone in the top 10 aside from the Ivies.

1. UNC (upcoming)
2. Virginia (0-1 OT loss)
3. Harvard
4. Princeton
5. Northwestern (0-1 loss; 4-2 edge in shots on goal)
6. Liberty (3-4 loss early in season; the only game in which they've conceded more than one goal!)
7. Wake Forest (upcoming)
(8. Duke)
9. Syracuse (0-1 loss)
10. Yale

They've beaten No. 11 UConn, No. 17 Cal, No. 20 Maryland, No. 23 VCU, No. 25 James Madison, No. 27 Stanford, No. 30 Boston College, No. 32 Louisville and No. 34 American. Also William & Mary, which is 1-10, so talking about their ranking seems irrelevant.
 
Volleyball had another rough, rough day, getting blown off the Cameron court 13, 18. 23. they were finally showing signs of life in that third set, building up a 5 point lead 20-15, thanks mostly to lousy hitting from Notre Dame. Even after Notre Dame rallied for the sweep, their hitting percentage in the final set was only .187, but Duke said, "We can go under that," and managed to hit 0.026 in that closing set. Even then, that was better than our opening frame, where we actually had a negative hitting percentage. It's not often you see a team post a -0.027. That means Duke would have been better off just lobbing the ball back to Notre Dame and waiting for a mistake than trying to record a kill. Our hitting percentage for the match was a woeful 0.048.

We're 5-16 on the season, 2-8 in conference, and it's going to take another month to put this season out of our misery. Ugh.
 
Phredd3 said:
Volleyball had another rough, rough day, getting blown off the Cameron court 13, 18. 23. they were finally showing signs of life in that third set, building up a 5 point lead 20-15, thanks mostly to lousy hitting from Notre Dame. Even after Notre Dame rallied for the sweep, their hitting percentage in the final set was only .187, but Duke said, "We can go under that," and managed to hit 0.026 in that closing set. Even then, that was better than our opening frame, where we actually had a negative hitting percentage. It's not often you see a team post a -0.027. That means Duke would have been better off just lobbing the ball back to Notre Dame and waiting for a mistake than trying to record a kill. Our hitting percentage for the match was a woeful 0.048.

We're 5-16 on the season, 2-8 in conference, and it's going to take another month to put this season out of our misery. Ugh.
Click to expand...
At this point, my only hope is that the 2-3 talented freshmen they have don't transfer.
 
As fall sports hit tournament time and winter sports get rolling, seems like it makes a bit of sense to evolve from the "Duke XC/track" thread and the "Fall women's ball-oriented sports" thread to more of a catch-all.

Field hockey: Took #1 UNC to overtime before losing 2-1, wrapping the regular season at 11-6 and claiming the #4 seed in the ACC tournament against Cal, whom they beat 2-0 earlier in the year.

RPI and Duke results ...
1. UNC 16-1, ACC (L 1-2 OT)
2. Harvard 16-0, Ivy
3. Princeton 16-0, Ivy
4. Virginia 14-1, ACC (L 0-1 2OT)
5. Northwestern, Big Ten 16-1 (L 0-1)
6. Wake Forest, ACC 15-3 (L 1-3)
7. Liberty 15-2, Big East (L 3-4)
8. DUKE 11-6, ACC
9. Yale 12-4, Ivy
10. UConn 10-7, Big East (W 1-0)
11. Syracuse 11-5, ACC (L 0-1)
19. Maryland (W 2-1)
20. Cal (W 2-0)
24. Boston College (W 3-1)
26. Stanford (W 2-0)
27. Louisville (W 2-1)
28. James Madison (W 5-0)
29. VCU (W 3-0)
30. Old Dominion (W 2-0)
31. American (W 2-1)
60. William & Mary (W 9-0)

The most recent coaches' poll (before the weekend) is similar: UNC, Northwestern, Harvard, Virginia, Princeton, Wake, Liberty, Duke, Syracuse, Iowa. The biggest differences: Maryland way higher (#11), Yale is lower (#16), and UConn is lower (#20).

I'll feel better about their chances to make the tournament (10 conference champions, 8 at-large qualifiers) if they beat Cal. They're 11-6, so unless they're conference champions, they'll be in the at-large pool with 7 losses -- one more than any at-large team had last year.

The good news is that a lot of the teams with whom they'd be competing for at-large spots also have at least six losses. You can't really make a case to move 10-7 UConn above Duke, especially considering that Duke beat them. Syracuse beat Duke but only took sixth in the ACC and will pick up its sixth loss unless it pulls off three straight upsets to win the ACC championship. No. 12 Iowa (12-4) would have a case, and maybe the committee would want a second MAC team out of #16 UMass and #17 Miami (Ohio).

Reminder: National semis and finals are on East Campus.

Wrestling: Fell behind Sacred Heart 15-0 by losing the first four matches, then won five of the last six to win 19-18.

Fencing: Split with UNC -- men won, women lost. Note -- this is the first year they'll have separate men's and women's NCAA team champions. And next year, the tournament is at Duke.

Volleyball: Plays #7 SMU today. Yikes. They're 5-17 with nine matches remaining. Getting to 10 wins would be an accomplishment.
 
FIELD HOCKEY

Were they trying to send a message to the NCAA selection committee?

ACC quarterfinal: Duke 7, Cal 1

Shots: Duke 28-1

Shots on goal: 15-1

Penalty corners: Duke 11-0

I suppose the one negative would be that Duke's goalie didn't make any saves?

Next up: UNC, and Duke has already shown they can go toe-to-toe with them.
 
Tonight’s final quarterfinal matchup, Wake Forest v Syracuse, was postponed, I presume because of the plane crash at the Louisville Airport. It may be interesting to see how that tragic incident impacts the rest of the tournament. Semifinals were scheduled for tomorrow, and the final on Friday. I wonder if they’ll push the semis to Thursday now.
 
Cal was apparently hit with food poisoning that led to 15 hospital visits between players and staff with only 7 players feeling no effects at all. Their starting goalie was one of the players who missed the game completely.

orrnot said:
Tonight’s final quarterfinal matchup, Wake Forest v Syracuse, was postponed, I presume because of the plane crash at the Louisville Airport. It may be interesting to see how that tragic incident impacts the rest of the tournament. Semifinals were scheduled for tomorrow, and the final on Friday. I wonder if they’ll push the semis to Thursday now.
Click to expand...
The semifinals have already been announced for Thursday at 11:00am and 1:30pm, but which teams will play first has not been decided yet.
 
awhom111 said:
Cal was apparently hit with food poisoning that led to 15 hospital visits between players and staff with only 7 players feeling no effects at all. Their starting goalie was one of the players who missed the game completely.


The semifinals have already been announced for Thursday at 11:00am and 1:30pm, but which teams will play first has not been decided yet.
Click to expand...
Yikes. That’s a nasty way to end a season.

The plane crash video is horrifying. Can’t blame them for delaying.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top