No. 14 Oregon volleyball defeated No. 25 USC in four sets on senior day at Matthew Knight Arena on Sunday afternoon 25-23, 23-25, 25-13, 25-22.
Five seniors played their final regular season match at Matthew Knight Arena, but it was Oregon’s underclassmen that stole the show in Oregon’s first Pac-12 weekend sweep since the Ducks (21-7, 11-7) defeated Oregon State and Colorado in the first weekend of Pac-12 play.
Junior Martenne Bettendorf continued her bounce-back and led Oregon’s attack with a career high 22 kills.

“We were struggling because we didn’t have Martenne at her best,” head coach Jim Moore said. “Everybody is going to have ebbs and flows throughout the season and now she’s back.”

Freshman setter Maggie Scott took control of the game with 27 assists and a career high 18 digs. Taylor Agost was also a welcome addition to the rotation as the freshman finished with a .360 attack percentage and 11 kills.
The team dug out 90 USC (14-14, 7-11) attacks, marking the second weekend in a row Oregon has had at least 90 digs.
Keeping up with its recent trend of hard-fought sets, Oregon battled back from an early deficit to win the first set 25-23, then dropped the second set 23-25.
It wasn’t until the third set that Oregon started to show a bit of separation from the Women of Troy. After a Taylor Whittingham ace, the Ducks outscored USC 9-1 with their lone point coming off of an Oregon attack error to win the third set 25-13. Oregon hit .394 in the third set and held USC to just a .182 attack percentage.
The Ducks carried that strong finish into the fourth set, but a tightened USC defense made the final set a bit more competitive. Oregon was held to a .220 hitting percentage, while holding USC to a .130 clip. Oregon sat at match point for three serves before a service error sealed the deal for Oregon in a 25-22 set win.
After three straight wins over top 25 opponents, Oregon is peaking at the right time as they head into the postseason.

“I think we’re playing great volleyball right now,” senior outside hitter Liz Brenner said. “We’re playing hard and we’re getting a lot of balls up that we weren’t a few weeks ago and I think this is perfect timing.”

With the win, Oregon has all but guaranteed itself a chance to host the opening round of the NCAA tournament, buying the seniors another chance at playing in front of their home crowd before their careers end.

“There’s no guarantees, but it would be difficult to have that not happen now,” Moore said.

Oregon faces Utah on the road on Tuesday before heading to Corvallis for the regular season finale against the Beavers on Friday.

Follow Josh Schlichter on Twitter @joshschlichter