Duke found its way through a messy middle and walked out of Charlottesville with a five-set road win Friday night, outlasting Virginia 3-2 inside Memorial Gymnasium.
The Blue Devils opened sharp, stumbled in the next two sets, then closed with enough poise to take the match 25-20, 22-25, 20-25, 25-23, 15-13. It was Duke’s second five-set road conference win of the season, and it snapped a two-match losing streak against Virginia.
Nataly Moravec and Ashby Zubchevich carried the attack load for Duke, combining for 41 of the team’s 62 kills. Zubchevich matched her career high with 21 kills, while Moravec finished with 20. Off the bench, Olivia Wayne gave the Blue Devils a lift with seven kills and three blocks after not appearing in a match since Sept. 19 against LIU.
Nikki Quinn ran the offense all night and finished with a match-high 47 assists. Her 43rd assist, on a Zoë Gillen-Malveaux kill in the fifth set, was the 1,000th of her career.
Quinn also added three blocks and led Duke with 10 digs, giving her a second double-double this season. Duke hit .241 for the match.
The Blue Devils also did enough defensively to keep Virginia in check, limiting the Cavaliers to .266 hitting and winning the blocking battle 10-9. Gillen-Malveaux, Quinn, Wayne and Breonna Goss each finished with three blocks.
Duke’s best stretch came right out of the gate. Virginia grabbed a 3-1 lead in the first set, but the Blue Devils answered with six of the next seven points and later ripped off a 5-0 run to move in front 18-12.
Duke never let the margin shrink below four from there, and Gillen-Malveaux put away the set with a kill. Moravec was clean and efficient in the opener, posting seven kills with no errors as Duke hit .348.
The Blue Devils also served aggressively, piling up three aces in the frame while Virginia had none.
The match swung sharply after that. Virginia raced to an 8-0 lead in the second set, and though Duke clawed back to tie it at 18-18 after trailing 17-14, the Cavaliers steadied and kept the Blue Devils at arm’s length the rest of the way. Duke hit just .129 in the set, with Moravec leading the team with three kills.
Virginia kept control in the third, too. The Cavaliers held a narrow 13-11 edge before a 5-0 run pushed them ahead 18-11, and Duke could never get closer than three after that. Virginia hit .379 in the set while Duke managed .192.
Then came the response. In the fourth, Virginia again looked positioned to close, taking a 19-15 lead after a 4-1 run coming out of the media timeout.
Duke answered with its own 4-1 surge to make it 20-19, then flipped the set late. Trailing 22-20, Zubchevich delivered back-to-back kills and Quinn added an ace to put Duke ahead 23-22.
Moravec finished the frame with a kill that forced a fifth set. Zubchevich had seven kills in the set, and Duke improved to .273 hitting.
The deciding set stayed tight, but Duke seized control early. The Blue Devils led 2-0, Virginia answered, and Duke then strung together three straight points to go up 5-2, forcing a Cavaliers timeout after a block by Gillen-Malveaux and Wayne.
Virginia tied it at 7-7, but an attack error put Duke back in front and the Blue Devils never gave the lead away again. Goss and Wayne finished the match with a block, and Duke held Virginia to .043 hitting in the final frame.
Zubchevich added four kills in the fifth.
Duke finished with advantages in kills, assists, aces and blocks, including an 8-2 edge from the service line. The two teams combined for 31 service errors, with Duke responsible for 21 and Virginia for 12. Reese Wuebker led Virginia with 18 kills.
The win moved Duke to 11-4 overall and 3-2 in the ACC, giving the Blue Devils their third conference victory of the season and surpassing last year’s total of two. Duke is now 60-15 all-time against Virginia, and its 11 wins are the most in a season since 2023, when it went 19-10.
Several personal marks came out of the night as well. Gillen-Malveaux tied her career high with three solo blocks.
Moravec set a career high with 62 attacks. Quinn set a career high with 11 attacks and tied her career high with two solo blocks.
Grace Thrower tied her career high with one kill.
Duke will try to complete the weekend sweep on Sunday in Blacksburg against Virginia Tech. First serve is set for 1 p.m. on ACC Network Extra.
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