Senior Gorana Maricic picked a good week to have her mother visit from Serbia. She posted a double-double with 14 kills and 11 digs Wednesday night against No. 2 Stanford, then did it again with 20 kills and 12 digs against No. 7 Cal.
“The last time she saw me play live was five years ago,” Maricic said. “She’s my biggest fan, and she always watched me by DVD, but this is a new experience for her.”
As much as Maricic’s mother may have enjoyed the play of her daughter and the No. 8 Ducks (23-8, 11-7 Pacific-10 Conference), it didn’t translate into two wins. Oregon lost to the Cardinal 1-3 the day before Thanksgiving in a well-played contest by both teams. However, the Ducks did bounce back to win their final match of the year 3-1 at McArthur Court in front of 1,721 fans on Friday’s Senior Night against Cal.
“It was great volleyball,” head coach Jim Moore said. “This had the feel of a Final Four match.”
The post-season feel was evident, as both teams battled through long rallies and scrapped for every point.
Stanford took the first set 25-20, using a 5-1 run to put it away after the Ducks came back to tie the set at 17-17. Oregon had nine hitting errors to Stanford’s four, and that difference was enough of an advantage for the Cardinal.
Oregon got in the win column in the second set, after it used the momentum of a 7-2 run to go up 20-14 on an out-of-bounds hit by Stanford. Maricic led the Ducks down the stretch, getting three kills and the decisive, set-winning block for the 25-19 win.
But during the next two sets, the Cardinal showed why it is the second-best team in the country. Led by outside hitter Cynthia Barboza’s 21 kills, it came out of the break and won the third set 25-22, and the final set 25-23.
Top Weekend Performers
| Gorana Maricic: 34 kills, 23 digs Sonja Newcombe: 32 kills, 22 digs Neticia Enesi: 19 kills, 10 blocks Heather Meyers 13 kills, 22 digs Katie Swoboda: 35 digs |
“Even in a loss, this should be a confidence booster,” Moore said. “This is a team that expects to win a Final Four and legitimately expects to win a national championship, and we were right there with them.”
Junior Sonja Newcombe agreed, saying it was good to come together after the rocky trip to Arizona the previous weekend.
“Obviously you want the ‘W,’ but we’ll take good things from this,” she said.
Newcombe had 18 kills for Oregon, leading four Ducks who had double-digit kill counts.
On Friday, the emotional conclusion to the regular-season was a fitting one for Oregon. Maricic and Newcombe were the only two players with double-digit kills for the Ducks, but their combined 34 kills were enough to give the team momentum heading into the NCAA Tournament next week.
The win gave Oregon a regular season record of 23-8, its best since 1983 when it was 24-8. The Ducks also posted their best league mark of 11-8 since 1987.
Headed to the capitol
| The No. 8 Oregon volleyball team’s road to the Final Four starts in the nation’s capitol Friday. Huddled around a flat-screen TV in the Pittman Room at the Casanova Center, the Ducks watched as they were seeded as the 11th overall seed in the Austin Regional of the 2008 NCAA Tournament. When the ESPN anchor announced that Oregon (23-8) will travel to Washington, D.C. to face the Delaware Blue Hens (19-15) of the Colonial Athletic Association, players let out happy yells and hugged each other. Head coach Jim Moore is happy with the way things turned out, and even though he’s disappointed the team can’t host a round, he says it’s just a matter of playing now. “I’m really excited in terms of our draw,” he said. “We won’t have to play anyone from the Pac-10 until the regional finals, and that’s a good thing.” This is the third straight year Oregon has made the NCAA tournament. Last year it fell to UCLA in the Sweet Sixteen. |
The Ducks came back from four points down in the first set and fought to a 20-20 tie before running off the last five points for the early lead.
The early momentum was dashed by a strong 10-2 run by the Bears in the second set that tied the score at 20. The teams battled into extra points, but California took the set 27-25 after a block by Maricic and Enesi went long.
After winning the third set 25-17, the Ducks put Cal away in the fourth, 26-24. Oregon’s two big hitters, Maricic and Newcombe, ended the night with back-to-back kills. Newcombe’s final hit of the night sent her to her knees, clutching her fists in victory as her teammates surrounded her.
“This was huge for us,” Newcombe said. “I think we really played well tonight. To have the momentum going into the tournament is awesome.”
“It was a special way to watch the seniors go out,” Moore said. “They have changed this program 100 percent and they get all the credit.”
The magical turnaround of this team has been anchored by senior libero Katie Swoboda. In her last game at Mac Court, she wooed the crowd with her acrobatic digs for the final time, netting 22 for the match. Her final total of 2,135 digs is second all-time in Pac-10 history.
“It’s such a blessing to be a Duck here,” Swoboda said. “It was really hard to focus on the game today, but we did it for the team, not just the seniors. We wanted to prepare for the next games.”
It’s now back to business for the Ducks, who start NCAA Tournament play this Sunday in Washington, D.C. against Delaware.
BEN SCHORZMAN
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