After another frustrating loss to Washington on Friday, the No. 7 Oregon Ducks (15-4 overall, 4-3 Pacific-10 Conference) are focusing on their next opponents. Wanting to get beyond that night, they’re trying to take the positives from it so that next time they’ll be ready.
“The important matches are the ones at the end,” senior Kristen Forristall said. “If we learn from this and beat them here, then it was worth it.” It’s a progression, she said. “We worked very hard to get here, so it’s no longer about getting to this point. It’s about continually moving up.”
Head coach Jim Moore and his team have been building to this point for years, and now the focus is shifting from them being the newcomer to staying with the conference’s elite.
Moore tells his players to only worry about what they can handle, and the rest will work itself out.
As the weekend’s games with Arizona, Arizona State and Utah loom directly on the horizon, here’s a few things that have been going on in the world of Duck volleyball:
Oregon ranked No. 7 in most recent poll
The Ducks remained in the top 10 this week after splitting with No. 6 Washington and unranked Washington State. This is the third straight week they have been one of the nation’s top 10 programs, and it’s the first time in the history of the program that they have been rewarded this many weeks in a row.
Forristall said with the ranking comes a responsibility to keep pressing the gas.
“I don’t think anyone on this team is complacent with the No. 7 ranking; we want to go higher,” she said. ” It’s just a responsibility to keep being where we need to be.”
But at the same time, don’t expect these Ducks to take too much stock in the weekly rankings put out by CBS College Sports and the American Volleyball Coaches Association. Respect is earned through wins, not a number next to your name, Moore said.
“Most of these coaches have never even seen us play,” he said. “You have to stay within yourself and worry about your side of the net and keep winning. That’s it.”
Five other Pac-10 teams also are among the top 14 teams. No. 4 California leads the list, followed by No. 5 Stanford, No. 6 Washington, No. 10 UCLA and No. 14 USC. Oregon State is also in the rankings at No. 24.
Junior Sonja Newcombe is on the mend
In a scary moment for Moore, outside hitter Sonja Newcombe went down with a knee injury during the first set of the Washington State game last Sunday.
It happened when she went to dig a ball and realized the ball was a little further than she originally thought and tried to turn to get it. Her knee turned with her body, but her heel stayed as it was, twisting her kneecap.
“My kneecap moved more than it’s supposed to,” she said in an attempt at humor.
Newcombe has been doing rehab exercises and treatment three times a day since the beginning of the week in an effort to hurry back from the set back, but she sat out practice on Tuesday.
“I’m walking on it, but we’ll just have to take it one day at a time,” she said. “The MRI came back showing no tears, though.”
That’s good news for Moore, who hopes to not have to leave Newcombe on the sidelines for too long.
She’s one of the emotional leaders of the team, and her solid play this season has anchored Oregon’s attack.
In place of Newcombe, senior Marija Milosevic has seen time with the starting squad during practice.
Utah is practice for the tournament
In a break from the normal routine, Oregon will have three games to look forward to in the coming days instead of two.
In addition to their two Pac-10 matches against Arizona on Friday and Arizona State on Saturday, the Ducks will host Utah Monday night at 7 p.m.
Newcombe thinks it will be a refreshing change.
“It’ll be interesting to see how we handle a Monday night game,” she said. “It will be a test of our discipline to get school done, and they’re a good team so it will be tough.”
Forristall and Moore both think that it will be a good way to practice for the NCAA tournament because the turnaround time between games is so quick, a team does not have very much time to prepare for their next match.
“It’s important to do that sort of thing,” Forristall said. “We know about the Pac-10 teams and what to expect and how to prepare for them, but with an out-of-conference opponent you don’t know what their tendencies are and it’s good preparation.”
Moore agreed and said another plus is that it takes up a practice day.
“It’s always better to play a match than to practice,” he said. “You learn more.”
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