Oregon was only one point away from a sweep to finish a six-match road trip — but a long stoppage to mop up the court left the players waiting for the conclusion.
After a couple of minutes, play resumed. Outside hitter Sophie Gregoire rose in the air with an emphatic kill to clinch the Ducks’ victory.
The final point sums up No. 12 Oregon’s win over Portland State (1-9) on Wednesday. It was choppy and, at times, sloppy for the Ducks. Oregon still did enough to earn the 3-0 sweep and continue its seven-match win streak.
The Ducks (7-1) typically haven’t gotten off to dominant starts in their non-conference matches. The beginning of their sets are sometimes riddled with miscues and service errors.
On Wednesday, Oregon had seven service errors in the first set. An animated head coach Matt Ulmer immediately took a timeout after Cristin Cline recorded the seventh error and the Ducks’ lead narrowed to 17-16 in the first.
To Oregon’s advantage, the Vikings also conceded seven free points in the set, all via attack errors. The Ducks went on to take the first set and win eight of the last 13 points after Ulmer’s timeout.
Portland State’s offense mainly featured Makayla Lewis and Carissa Barron. The two combined for 67 of its 104 total attacks. Despite a predictable opposing attack, the Ducks made it difficult on themselves with their errors. A second set that looked to be commanding ended up only being a 25-22 victory.
The Vikings’ .087 hitting percentage ended up being the difference maker in the match. They had 24 total attack errors to only 10 by Oregon. Five of them came off the hands of Lewis and Barron in the final set.
Onye Ofoegbu led the Ducks down the stretch, finishing with eight kills on .727 percent hitting and five blocks. Cline finished with 30 of the team’s 37 assists, while All-American Mimi Colyer didn’t see the court in the final two sets.
Oregon now has back-to-back sweeps versus Portland State in the last two meetings. The Ducks have won 14 of the last 15 matchups in the series against the Vikings.
Oregon finishes off non-conference play on Sunday against Oregon State. It’ll return to Matthew Knight Arena with the match set to begin at 1 p.m.
