Freshman student-athlete Lindsey Vander Weide begins the “student” portion of her college career this week. Unlike most of her classmates, Vander Weide has already been hard at work on Oregon’s campus since the beginning of August.
During that time, Vander Weide met with her 14 teammates who comprise the Oregon volleyball team and began to prepare for the upcoming season.
Fast forward to the present and the No. 18 Oregon volleyball team, already 11 games into the season, has yet to play at Matthew Knight Arena. The Ducks have traveled across much of the country, including a road trip that began in Pennsylvania and ended two weeks later in Texas.
It was over that time period that Oregon head coach Jim Moore said his team “came together” and “matured”  so that they’ll be ready for the daunting Pac-12 season laying ahead of them.
“One thing we know how to do is play on the road,” Moore said. “Given our schedule this year, it’s something we’re going to have to be good at to win in this conference.”
Six of Oregon’s upcoming nine road games, including a 3-0 loss to No. 14 Arizona Sunday, will take place against teams currently ranked in the top 25.
With that upcoming schedule, it’s a good thing the Ducks began the season on the road. The road games have given the team a sense of what it’s like to play in different and hostile environments.
The low-point of the road trip came at the end when the Ducks traveled to Texas to play four games over five days. Perhaps feeling a bit of road weariness, Oregon fell to No. 5 Texas in straight sets before losing to No. 4 Nebraska 3-2 the next day.
“We were tired from traveling but we really showed a lot of fight in those matches,” Moore said. “No excuses, we lost. But, we did show that we are a very good team and can play with anyone.”
After returning to the confines of their own homes for two weeks of practice, the Ducks had to begin Pac-12 play on the road against Oregon State last Thursday, a match Oregon dominated 3-1 for the win.
“We traveled for two weeks and that was super long and tedious,” Vander Weide said after the win over Oregon State. “Being able to just drive 40 minutes up the road and play a game was great.”
The Ducks will return home for a match on Thursday against Colorado. Oregon will be a vastly different team than they were on the road. The group learned how to rely and trust one another on the road, something huge to the success of this team.
“Martenne struggled tonight but [setter] Maggie [Scott] trusts so many other hitters that they stepped up,” Moore said after Oregon’s 3-1 win over Oregon State. “After that road trip, we learned who was going to be good and hopefully it continues to show.”
After maturing and coming together as a unit, the Oregon volleyball team is now ready to take on the gauntlet that is the Pac-12 conference.
Follow Ryan Kostecka on Twitter @Ryan_Kostecka