Leading Off
Duke heads west for the second straight weekend to open the season, traveling to Lawrence, Kan., for the 2015 Kansas Invitational at the Jayhawks' Horejsi Family Athletics Center ... The Blue Devils face UMKC at 10:30 a.m. (EDT) Friday, Sept. 4, followed by a tilt with host Kansas at 8 p.m. (EDT) ... Duke wraps up the tournament Saturday, Sept. 5 against Western Illinois at 11:30 a.m. (EDT).

Last Time Out
The Blue Devils posted a 2-1 showing the 2015 LBSU/CSF Baden Invitational opening weekend ... Duke picked up straight-set victories over Saint Mary's and Cal State Fullerton opening day before falling, 3-2, to Long Beach State Saturday ... Junior Alyse Whitaker led the Blue Devils with 30 kills on .418 hitting, while freshman Leah Meyer added 22 kills (.422 hitting %) and 11 blocks over the course of the tournament ... Defensively, libero Sasha Karelov picked up a team-high 40 digs ... Duke's setting duo of Emma Paradiso and Maggie Deichmeister combined for 114 assists, helping Duke hit .316 as a team ... Paradiso also contributed a team-best eight service aces, including a career-best four versus Cal State Fullerton.

Duke vs. Tournament Field
The 2015 Kansas Invitational pits the Blue Devils against two new opponents in the host Jayhawks and the Kangaroos of UMKC ... Duke is 1-1 versus its only familiar foe in the field, Western Illinois ... The Blue Devils and the Leathernecks first met Nov. 7, 1987, a 3-1 Western Illinois decision ... Duke took the two teams' last meeting, 3-0, Sept. 6, 2013 at Minnesota's Diet Coke Classic in Minneapolis.

Duke in the ACC
The Blue Devils compiled a 14-4 ACC record and finished third in the league standings behind Florida State and North Carolina in 2014 ... Duke led the league in three statistical categories: assists per set, kills per set and digs per set ... Three Blue Devils -- senior outside hitter Emily Sklar, junior middle blocker Jordan Tucker and junior libero Sasha Karelov -- garnered 2015 Preseason All-ACC honors ... Duke was picked to finish third in the conference in 2015 according to a vote of the league's 15 head coaches.

Duke's High-Powered Offense
The Blue Devils boasted one of the nation's top offenses in 2014 ... Duke ranked second in the country in both assists per set (14.05 aps) and kills per set (14.83 kps) ... In addition, the Blue Devils posted a .262 hitting percentage, good for third in the ACC and 25th nationally ... Duke's average of 14.05 assists per set marked the Blue Devils' highest since 2007 when the team average 16.37 assists per frame ... Duke's .262 hitting percentage was also the Blue Devils' best since 1994 ... After the 2015 opening weekend, Duke is averaging 14.4 kills per set while hitting .316 as a team.

Sklar Climbs Career List
Senior outside hitter Emily Sklar put down 27 kills over the opening weekend to jump three spots on Duke's career kills list ... Sklar entered the season ranked 16th in program history ... With 1,187 kills to her credit, she now ranks 13th and needs just 63 more kills to enter the top 10.

Sklar Participates in World University Games
Senior Emily Sklar accepted an invitation to represent the United States at the World University Games July 3-14 in Gwangju City, South Korea ... The 2013 ACC Player of the Year and a two-time AVCA All-American, Sklar averaged a career-best 4.27 kills per set to rank third in the league and 28th nationally ... She knocked down 10 or more kills 24 times, including each of Duke's final 11 matches ... Sklar also led the team with 12 double-doubles and ranked second on the team with a career-high 282 digs ... She totaled career highs in kills (436), digs (292) service aces (29) and hitting percentage (.257) ... Sklar registered her 1,000th career kill Nov. 24 at Virginia Tech.

Karelov Approaches 1,000 Career Digs
Junior libero Sasha Karelov enters the weekend with 854 career digs, 146 shy of 1,000 ... She begins the weekend averaging 3.71 digs per set for her career, good for seventh all-time at Duke ... Karelov led the team with 559 digs in 2014 ... An All-ACC pick, Karelov averaged 5.13 digs per set, a mark which also ranked 26th nationally ... Karelov was also the only league player to average over five digs per frame and she picked up double-digit digs in all 30 matches ... The Raleigh, N.C., native totaled 20 or more digs 12 times, including a career-best, 35-dig performance Sept. 2, 2014 against Campbell ... Karelov's 35-dig night ranked fifth in the Duke single-match records.

Sustained Success
Duke put together a 22-8 campaign in 2014, marking the 26th time in the program's 44-year history that the Blue Devils topped 20 wins ... Duke has surpassed 20 wins in nine of the past 10 seasons, winning 25 or more matches in six of the past eight campaigns ... In 16 seasons under head coach Jolene Nagel, Duke has won 20 or more matches 13 times and 25-plus six times.

Blue Devils Advance to NCAA Tournament
Duke earned an at-large bid to the 2014 NCAA Tournament, marking the 19th NCAA Tournament appearance in program history ... The Blue Devils rank second in the ACC in overall NCAA Tournament appearances, trailing only Louisville's total of 24 ... The Blue Devils made their eighth NCAA Tournament appearance of the past nine seasons in 2014.

Related Links
Duke Chronicle: 'Duke volleyball trio returns to Kansas for weekend tournament'

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