The Duke Blue Devils had a fairly successful season last year. They finished 26-7 overall and 14-4 in ACC conference play while making it to the NCAA Tournament albeit losing to Colorado in the second round. The team has improved each season since Kara Lawson took over as head coach ahead of the 2020-21 season. It's only been two years under Lawson as her first year as head coach the team decided to opt out of the season during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The roster is in a bit of flux though. The Blue Devils lost star wing Celeste Taylor to the transfer portal. Now Duke will be without another key player from last season's team in Vanessa de Jesus who will miss the season due to a knee injury as per ESPN.

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With Vanessa de Jesus missing the entirety of the 2023-24 season with a knee injury, that leaves Duke with its longest tenured player on the roster. The rest of the team has not been with the program for longer than a year. De Jesus originally committed to the program back when Joanne P. McCallie was still the head coach. She remained committed to the program even after Lawson took over.

This past season, de Jesus was a key player off the bench. She averaged 5.0 points per game, 2.1 rebounds and 1.5 assists with splits of 42.7 percent shooting from the field, 34.8 percent shooting from the three-point line and 89.2 percent shooting from the free-throw line. De Jesus had her freshman season at Duke cut short when the team decided not to play due to the COVID-19 pandemic.