June 24, 2005

Duke volleyball head coach Jolene Nagel released the 2005 volleyball schedule Friday, which features seven matches against teams that advanced to the 2004 NCAA Tournament. Duke returns 10 players from the 2004 squad that finished 20-10 and third place in the ACC, including six players who received significant starting experience in 2004.

Duke will open up the season in Houston, Texas, Sept. 2-3 at the Rice Invitational, where they will face Rice, Sacramento State and McNeese State. Sacramento State advanced to the NCAA Tournament a year ago after winning the Big Sky conference while Rice finished second in the WAC to perennial power Hawaii with a 25-5 record and received an NCAA Tournament birth.

Duke will then host the 2005 Duke Invitational as SMU, Cornell and Charlotte will all travel to Durham, N.C., Sept. 9-10. Cornell, where Nagel started her coaching career and led them to an 85-40 record and three Ivy League championships in four years, won its first league championship since shortly after Nagel left.

To wrap up the pre-conference schedule, Duke will travel to Columbus, Ohio, where Duke will square off with Brigham Young and then either Pittsburgh or Ohio State. BYU missed the NCAA Tournament for just the third time in its history last season while Ohio State finished the season ranked No. 6 and advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.

The Atlantic Coast Conference will feature a round-robin schedule with the other 11 teams, meaning a marathon 22-match schedule is on slate. After road matches at Clemson and 2003 regular season champion Georgia Tech, Duke kicks off the home conference schedule by hosting rival North Carolina on Sept. 29.

Later in the league slate, the Blue Devils have the luxury of not leaving the state of North Carolina for a month as from Oct. 20 to Nov. 19, eight of Duke's 11 matches will be at home and the three road contests are at North Carolina, N.C. State and Wake Forest. Duke then finishes up the regular season with a Florida trip near Thanksgiving, taking on Florida State Nov. 23 and Miami Nov. 25.

Duke returns much of its nucleus from a season ago, including All-District performers Ali Hausfeld, Carrie DeMange and Tealle Hunkus.