It was business as usual for the Oregon women’s volleyball team this weekend: two more Pacific-10 Conference games and two more wins.
In what is becoming a habit for the Ducks (17-4 overall, 6-3 Pac-10), they swept Arizona State (11-11, 2-7) and Arizona (13-8, 3-6) at McArthur Court, where they are a perfect 10-0.
“It’s a great feeling,” sophomore Heather Meyers said. “They were both good teams, but we just kept playing tough.”
The Ducks won 3-0 Friday night against the Sun Devils, but didn’t make it look easy. Missing junior captain Sonja Newcombe due to a lingering knee injury she sustained last weekend at Washington State, Oregon floundered in the first two sets, racking up 17 hitting errors.
In the first set, Oregon raced out to a 10-4 lead, but saw the Sun Devils go on a 5-0 run to get within a point. The Ducks rallied and went up by five at 20-15; however, Arizona State again wouldn’t go down, fighting to 23-19 before Oregon finally won.
The second set was where things almost unraveled for Oregon. After an early tie at four, Arizona State went on a 5-0 run, thanks to three errors from the Ducks and two blocks. Then the Sun Devils put on the pressure, blocking almost every hit Oregon had. The lead ballooned to seven points at 19-12 and the Ducks were in danger of losing their first set at home since UCLA took the second set of their match on Oct. 3.
At that point, head coach Jim Moore had seen enough. He called a time out and lit into his players. He slapped his black binder and started yelling. Moore said that the poor play was exactly what he was talking about and they were just “assuming it was over.” He then finished by emphatically saying, “Get it going. Now.”
The Ducks took Moore’s words to heart, and stepped it up. They went on a 5-0 run to cut the lead to 19-17, led by three aces from junior libero Amanda Westrick. Followed by two points from Arizona State, Oregon rattled off six more to take a 23-21 lead, including four straight points by senior Kristen Forristall. From there, they hung on for the 25-23 win.
After the narrow victory in the second set, Oregon cruised to a 25-18 win in the third. But for the Ducks, the more pressing issue was their play without Newcombe. At times they were confused and there was a lot of miscommunication.
“We missed Sonja Newcombe tonight,” Moore said. “We are a completely different team without her on the floor. We were pretty anxious without having her in there. The chemistry is different, and we just have to learn how to relax and move on through it. She’s our emotional and vocal leader, and we needed someone to step up.”
Enter Kristen Forristall. She was the spark the Ducks needed in the second set rally, and she played to a team-high 13 kills along with senior Gorana Maricic.
“Kristen did great,” Moore said. “That was the definition of stepping up. When we needed her the most, she performed marvelously.”
The win against the Sun Devils propelled the Ducks into their match-up with Arizona on Saturday night. But unlike the previous night, Oregon was composed, and ready for the challenge.
The Ducks won the first set 25-21, but a late rally by the Wildcats made the game look closer than it had been.
The second set seemed won until late, when Arizona made it interesting. With a 20-11 lead, Oregon looked like it was going to win with ease, but a 9-1 run cut the lead to 21-20.
Upset that his team let Arizona back in the game, Moore called a timeout, and again the girls responded. They scored the next three points and won 25-21 on a kill from Forristall.
The final set of the evening saw 10 ties and two lead changes, as Arizona battled to avoid the sweep. But under a barrage of kills from the All-American Maricic, the Wildcats crumbled, and Oregon won 25-20.
Maricic ended with 14 kills along with Meyers, and Oregon hit .304 as a team – better than the .227 performance the night before.
The big concern is for Newcombe. She did some warm-ups before both games, but was relegated to the sidelines.
“Sonja is day-to-day,” Moore said. “We will re-evaluate her on Monday and go from there, but I don’t think she will play.”
That’s no matter, he said.
“I think it helps us tremendously not having Sonja in there,” he said. “It has made us grow as a team because different people have to step up every night.”
But the team isn’t finished. The Ducks still have one more opponent to face before they can think about next week. Looming on Monday night is Utah, and Moore isn’t taking the 15-4 Utes lightly.
“We can’t let up, we’re not done,” he said. “We cannot allow ourselves to take a breath after tonight. We have tomorrow off, but then it’s right back to it.”
[email protected]
Ducks scorch ASU, Arizona to keep home record perfect
Daily Emerald
October 27, 2008
Mike Perrault
0
More to Discover