The Oregon club women’s volleyball team can now call itself the best of the best after being crowned national champion last weekend at the National Intercollegiate Recreation Sports Association Nationals tournament.
The team members traveled to Kansas City, Kan., and came face-to-face with the reality that their ultimate goal was finally at their fingertips. Oregon was familiar with the elite setting as it placed 15th last season at nationals and entered this year’s tournament ranked 39th out of 48 teams.
“We knew from the start that we were going to be a lower seed, and they saw that as a challenge,” Oregon coach Cody Banner said. “They proved to everybody how good of a team they are.”
Oregon began its tournament run with pool play Thursday, where the team won three games with no difficulties. It then faced Texas, the defending national champion, on Friday, but Oregon prevailed and advanced onward to beat Florida.
Oregon ran into difficulty against Washington State after losing the first two games of the match but battled back to capture the win and then took care of Kentucky to play Purdue in the finals.
“Our team was very confident that we were supposed to be there,” coordinator Stacey Terry said. “We were there to prove we were going to be national champs.”
The women started slow against Purdue by barely losing game one, 24-26. In game two they again ran into trouble and found themselves down 12-3. But they were not about to give in and fought back to win, 27-25. In the third and final game, Oregon played with all its heart to edge the Boilermakers, 16-14, to capture the national championship.
The game ended in dramatic fashion when Oregon senior Annie Pogue scored the final point on a spike that hit a Purdue player dead in the face and knocked her off her feet.
“Our team has so much tenacity,” said Pogue, a former member of the Oregon varsity volleyball program. “We knew we were going to win as long as we just kept fighting.”
Pogue was honored for efforts as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. Oregon also had two first team all-tournament players in senior Lisa Dohrmann and junior Carli Halligan.
Those who witnessed Oregon’s games through the tournament were amazed at the level of play shown.
“I have never seen a women’s team that worked so well and had no flaws,” Oregon men’s club volleyball coach Vince Butera said.
The future is bright for Oregon, as it will have five returning starters and two returning All-Americans while losing only one senior.
“All in all, I like the way the team played as a team,” Banner said. “It’s a team sport, and they played as team and that is what mattered.”