Oregon volleyball didn’t need a win on Friday to keep their tournament hopes alive, but it certainly would have helped.
With the season coming down to the wire, the Ducks were hoping for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. Tonight’s match at Matthew Knight Arena against the No. 2 Washington Huskies would have offered a sure resume-booster to Oregon’s tournament hopes had they come away with a win.
Unfortunately for them, that wasn’t the case as they fell in a 3-1 loss. Oregon is now 14-12 on the season and 8-9 in PAC-12 play.
As they have done so often this season, the Ducks played strong early in the match. They captured the first set 25-20 and looked every bit as talented as the Huskies — if not more talented. But late-set struggles have been Oregon’s Achilles heel all year. That was the case once again as Washington scored their final five points on Oregon errors in the third set to go ahead 2-1, never looking back.
“It would have helped to win the (the third set) and we would still be playing right now,” Oregon Head Coach Jim Moore said. “To lose that — that was heartbreaking.”
“I told them we have to come out and fight, and they did a great job of coming out in the fourth set … Washington just didn’t make one single solitary mistake at the end.”
Oregon held serve tied 27-27 in the third set and had a chance to grasp control of the match. But a service error by freshman Lindsey Vander Weide followed by an attack error by freshman Lauren Page ultimately allowed the Huskies to take the set.
“It’s unfortunate — it’s easy to say we had it, and we did,” Moore said. “We made two great plays to get it tied and all we had to do was side out and score two straight points.
Oregon was led by the play of Vander Weide, who dominated offensively early in the match. She finished the first set with seven kills, while hitting .778, and ended the match with 16 kills. Junior libero Amanda Benson kept several crucial rallies alive for Oregon and set a single match career-high with 32 digs.
Washington has found success this season by spreading the ball around on the offensive end, and they were able to do so once again against the Ducks. Courtney Schwan and Tia Scambray each had 12 kills, and Crissy Jones had 10.
Oregon’s .236 team hitting percentage was superior to the .211 that Washington posted, but the Huskies were able to control the match at the net and tallied 28 blocks to Oregon’s 14.
“Washington is a great team,” Vander Weide said “The thing is, they have a lot of good hitters and they distribute the ball well. That’s a really hard thing for teams to do, and they did that.”
This loss to the Huskies exemplifies another match where the Ducks played well — well enough to win — but ultimately came up short due to their inability to finish of sets. It has been the story of their season: when faced with high-pressure situations, the Ducks appear to tighten up and deviate from the habits that have brought them success.
“I think the part you have to learn, is that in the beginning you want to ignore that there’s a such thing as pressure, you want to just say ‘it’s normal’ — it’s not just normal, it’s a big time match and it’s really important … We just need to make the play rather than act like (pressure) doesn’t exist.”
Oregon will be faced with a gut-check match that will decided their season when No. 24 Arizona State comes to town on Nov. 25. They will conclude their regular season against Oregon State at home on Nov. 27.
At this point, they will be at the mercy of the NCAA selection committee on Nov. 29 and will learn whether their preformance this season has been deemed worthy of an NCAA tournament bid.
“We have to win the next two, I can tell you that much,” Moore said.
Follow Jarrid Denney on Twitter @jdenney50