Oregon is going to the round of 16.
One year after being bounced in the second round of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament, the Ducks have now improved upon that finish by defeating LSU 3-1 (25-22, 21-25, 25-20, 25-20) in the second round of this year’s tournament. Oregon will fly to Minneapolis, Minnesota to play in the third round against an opponent to be determined this upcoming week.
“I thought last night was pretty special,” Oregon head coach Jim Moore said. “We know we can get this done — nobody is going to be at home in Minneapolis so everybody is in a so-called truly neutral site.”
It was an interesting night for the Ducks as they never fully found a rhythm in the match yet were able to prevail when different parts of their games were working. If the offense was struggling, the blocking and digging made up for it and vice versa.
“We went into the locker room in between the sets and basically are main focus was moving forward and staying focused to get the job done,” Oregon’s Martenne Bettendorf said. “We knew it was going to be a dog fight so we knew we had to get after it.”
Bettendorf saved her best for last as the all-Pac-12 first teamer is playing some of her best volleyball late in the season. After registering 12  kills and hitting .478 in yesterday’s first round win over Santa Clara, Bettendorf upped her game by posting 18 kills at a .311 hitting percentage in tonight’s victory.
“I’m not really worried about myself — just trying to help my teammates out,” Bettendorf said. “It’s nice because everyone else is doing their job so I can focus on my job — I’m just playing and not really thinking about anything.”
Moore knew that if Oregon was going to pull out the win, they were going to have to contain LSU middle Brianna Holman, saying she’s “good enough to beat us by herself.”
The Ducks’ only loss of the match came in the second set when Holman had eight kills and hit .333.
Other than that, Oregon did a very good job of containing the ultra-athletic Tiger. Middles Kacey Nady and Serena Warner did a much better job of staying with Holman throughout the third and fourth sets and that, combined with Oregon’s offense to put the ball on the floor, caused some timing issues between LSU setter Malorie Pardo and Holman.
“We knew that it was in the game plan for them (LSU),” Nady said. “I just think we completely focused on her and forgot about other hitters because we knew the other players weren’t being as effective as her.”
The match started out much like a heavyweight fight with each team throwing punches and not making runs until later in the sets.
The Ducks were the obvious beneficiaries in the first set as Bettendorf really came alive to give Oregon the win. The second set was all Holman for LSU as she, just like Moore predicted, defeated defeated the Ducks by herself.
The third set was back and forth until the Ducks found a little bit of breathing room at 22-20. Coming out of a timeout, LSU committed a service error and a hitting error before Liz Brenner notched the final kill for the set win.
The final set on the night was the fourth one.
Oregon couldn’t have gotten off to a better start as a couple of triple blocks, a few LSU hitting errors and a Warner kill gave the Ducks a 6-1 advantage that they never gave up.
“That was good,” Moore said. “I sat in the huddle and said lets have a sense of urgency and they did — they were all over it coming out in the fourth set.”
The Tigers fought back from the early deficit, cutting the score to 22-19 before a huge kill by Bettendorf swung the momentum back in Oregon’s favor. Another Bettendorf kill and an LSU hitting error rounded out the scoring for the Ducks.
Seniors Natalie Bookout-Gonzalez, Shellsy Ashen, Allie Rogers, Brenner and Warner played their final match ever at Matthew Knight Arena but with the win, have lived to play another day.