No. 2 Oregon volleyball was unable to respond to a disappointing five-set loss to California on Friday and were defeated by top-ranked Stanford 3-0 in straight sets on Sunday at Matthew Knight Arena. Alaina Bergsma led all players with 15 kills, but the effort was simply not enough to knock off the Cardinal.
Both teams came out of the locker room crisp and found themselves tied early in the set.
The set remained highly contested and the squads were knotted up again at nine points apiece but after a brief offensive spurt by Stanford that resulted in them taking a 14-10 lead over the Ducks, head coach Jim Moore called his first timeout of the match.
Following the timeout the Ducks continued to battle but were unable to dig into the Cardinal lead, and Moore was forced into calling his second timeout of the set with his team trailing 20-16 in the latter portion of the frame.
Oregon was able to remain close but just simply couldn’t catch the Cardinal, and a Carly Wopat kill at the net gave Stanford a 25-20 first set victory.
The second set began with a slew of unforced errors for the Ducks, and they fell down early 4-1 to the Cardinal, forcing Moore to call timeout to center his team.
The sloppy play continued for Oregon, which found itself trailing the Cardinal 14-8 halfway through the set.
However, the Ducks were able to gain a little steam and were able to pull within four points at 15-11 before Stanford head coach John Dunning called his first timeout of the match.
Oregon continued to fight and eventually pulled within one at 15-16 and an attack error by Inky Ajanaku tied the second set at 18.
Turning point. The teams continued to trade points back and forth but the Cardinal eventually won the second set 25-20 on a kill from Brittany Howard which gave Stanford a commanding 2-0 lead headed into the third.
With their backs against the wall, Oregon was able to take a 6-4 lead early in the third, but the Cardinal were able to tie the set at six. The set continued to be a dogfight but after a Lauren Plum ace and an attack error on Stanford gave the Ducks a 10-7 lead, the Cardinal called time.
As the set progressed neither team was able to find much separation, but the sloppy play of the Ducks resulted in them being down three late.
Alaina Bergsma and company were able to hang around and eventually pulled within two at 22-20 but the Cardinal attack was too much and they eventually prevailed 25-21 to defeat Oregon in straight sets.
On the horizon. After the match Jim Moore spoke to what he thought went wrong in the Ducks only straight-set defeat of the year thus far.
“I think we were focused on not losing instead of winning,” Moore said. “We put no pressure on them in any way, shape or form.”
Moore’s squad will now have a week to regroup before they welcome Arizona State and Arizona into Matthew Knight Arena for showdowns on Friday, Nov. 9 and Saturday, Nov. 10.
Ducks volleyball falls in straight sets to top ranked Stanford Cardinal
Eddie Paskal
November 3, 2012
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