Over the past six games, the Ducks have only lost one set.

While traveling up and down the West Coast, Oregon has faced three opponents this season that played in last year’s NCAA tournament. As early as the first game this season, the Ducks have been preparing for December and while there’s still room for improvement, they are making fans really excited.

On the last day of the San Diego State Invitational, Oregon swept Pepperdine (25-21, 25-16, 25-15) for an undefeated start to the season. 

After being down one late in the first set, the Ducks went on a three-point scoring run to take the lead as it was winding down thanks to a kill from Gabby Gonzales and a couple of Pepperdine errors. While Oregon was in front at 22-21, they maintained its slim advantage by taking the final three points and ending the set with a Kara McGhee and Morgan Lewis block. 
Even though the offense had a pretty slow start with a .073 hitting percentage and seven attack errors, the defense stepped up and had 19 digs, four blocks, and two aces.

While the teams huddled to prepare for the second set, something sparked within the Ducks. Oregon wasted no time taking the lead with an early score of 10-4. Throughout the set, Pepperdine got no closer than five. 
The Ducks’ largest lead came at 19-10 after Karson Bacon and Hannah Pukis teamed up for a block. After McGhee brought Oregon to match point after a kill — and a Pepperdine error — the Ducks had a 2-0 lead, which is something they’ve had in every single game this season so far. 

Oregon had another quick start to kick off the final set that forced the Waves to use an early timeout. The Ducks had a 10-5 lead after a kill by Pukis, who finished the night with 30 assists, eight digs, three kills two blocks, and two aces. 

Their five-point lead turned into a double-digit lead after Oregon went on a 5-0 scoring run that was capped off by a Mimi Colyer kill. Colyer had 16 kills and 10 digs for her second double-double of the invitational. Her kill pushed the score to 19-9 and the Ducks never let the lead drop below seven. 

At 24-16, Gonzales served an ace, which would be the Ducks’ seventh ace of the game. Oregon finished the weekend with 22 service winners across three matches and 36 spread over the six matches this season. 

Pepperdine saved the first match point with a kill but McGhee’s seventh kill of the game clinched the sweep for Oregon.

Through the first two invitationals, the Ducks are hitting .341. They are put up .316 or higher in five out of the six matches while the five primary attackers — Bacon, Colyer, Gonzales, Lewis, and McGhee — are all hitting .275 or higher. 

Oregon will face two ranked opponents — Minnesota and Ohio State — next at the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge hosted by Stanford. This is a good preview of future conference opponents as the University of Oregon announced that it will be joining the Big Ten conference in the 2024-25 school year.