The University of Oregon volleyball team is currently ranked No. 2 in the nation, according to the most recent American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, the program’s highest ranking of all time.
The Ducks received a six-point bump in the poll after defeating the No. 3 USC Trojans 3-0 in straight sets in Los Angeles on Friday night and have now moved up 18 spots since the preseason poll was released.
Behind strong seasons from outside hitters Alaina Bergsma and Liz Brenner@@http://www.ncaa.com/news/volleyball-women/article/2012-09-21/no-2-uscs-perfect-winning-streak-ends-sweep-no-8-oregon@@, the Ducks find themselves undefeated at 11-0 with several impressive victories on their resume.
Bergsma leads the team with 152 kills and the Portland native, Brenner, has contributed 129 of her own.
Oregon is among familiar names at the top of the AVCA poll. Excluding top-ranked Penn State, the Pac-12 has a hold on five of the top seven spots. USC, UCLA and Washington hold down the three, four and five spots respectively, while Stanford comes in at number seven.
In addition to the team accolades, Oregon setter Lauren Plum@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205693764@@ also received an award of her own being named Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week. Plum netted 48 assists against UCLA and 46 against USC to help the Ducks sweep the two Los Angeles schools.
Oregon takes their No. 2 ranking and continues conference play by facing off against Utah on Friday, Sept. 28th and Colorado on Saturday, Sept. 29th both at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene. The match on Friday will also be televised on the Pac-12 Network.