The no. 8 ranked Oregon Ducks volleyball team remained unbeaten after defeating the Oregon State Beavers 3-0 Wednesday evening to open up PAC-12 play at Matthew Knight Arena. Middle blocker Ariana Williams@@http://eugenedailynews.com/2012/09/08/oregon-volleyball-defeats-uc-santa-barbara-3-1/@@ led the team with 14 kills and Alaina Bergsma and Liz Brenner@@http://www.registerguard.com/web/sports/28733135-41/ducks-oregon-bergsma-brenner-kills.html.csp@@ contributed with 13 and 12 respectively.
The Ducks came out looking crisp and jumped out to an early 8-3 first-set lead, forcing Beavers head coach Taras Liskevych@@http://www.osubeavers.com/sports/w-volley/mtt/liskevych_taras00.html@@ to call timeout to try to slow the Oregon offensive barrage. Following the timeout, the Beavers still had no answer for the Ducks and continued falling further behind. Brenner netted six kills in the set and Oregon State, unable to maintain any consistency, fell 25-12.
The second set was a different story for Oregon. After several unforced errors they found themselves in an early 9-4 hole and head coach Jim Moore@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=113244@@ was forced to call timeout. However, their woes continued and Moore called his second timeout of the set with the Ducks trailing 14-9.
Turning point. Still trailing in the latter part of the set, Lauren Plum@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=204963207@@ acrobatically executed a shot from her knees that found the back corner of the court and brought the Ducks back to within three at 15-12. From there the set begin to tilt in Oregon’s favor and a spike from Ariana Williams@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=204963244@@ tied the match at 19. Behind a strong effort from senior outside hitter Alaina Bergsma the Ducks managed to steal the second set 26-24.
Asked about the second set, Williams discussed the team’s comfort playing from behind.
“Unfortunately, we are very good at coming back because we usually start behind,” Williams said. “But we just focus on each play in front of us instead of letting the plays behind us drag us down so we just let things go and move on and than stuff just starts to come.”
Up 2-0 heading into the third, Oregon found themselves in another early hole, down 6-1 to the Beavers. After an offensive spurt from outside hitter Katherine Fischer,@@http://champions.uoregon.edu/volleyballs-fischer-honored-espn-academic-all-american@@ Oregon tied the third set at 9. However, the Beavers would not go quietly and late in the set Oregon held a slight 18-14 lead. Following an Oregon State timeout, the Ducks were able to gain a little separation and an emphatic spike from Ariana Williams that cemented the third set 25-15 and the match 3-0.
Head Coach Jim Moore was pleased with the effort his squad put forth in the game and believed their fast start against the Beavers was crucial to their success.
“We came out and did what we were supposed to, we jumped on them,” Moore said. “We acted like a team that knew how to win and that’s what we need, I’m real happy with that.”
On the horizon. Oregon will now travel to Los Angeles to take on the no. 2 ranked USC Trojans on Friday in a highly anticipated matchup of top 10 programs. The Trojans have been playing quality volleyball and are coming off a tournament victory at the TCU Molten Invitational last weekend in Southern California.@@http://www.usctrojans.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/091312aae.html@@