Tears lined players’ eyes. Jim Moore sat, unmoving, on the sideline. Sonja Newcombe slouched in the stands.
The confident Oregon volleyball team that had swept Arizona on Thursday disappeared by Friday evening. What emerged was not an NCAA Tournament team, but a team unable to get past the seventh-place squad in the Pacific-10 Conference.
So when the Ducks fell in four games to visiting Arizona State, Oregon coach Moore and players were left to figure out what happened and how it affects the team going forward. The Ducks lost the first two games – 30-23 and 30-28 – won game 3, 30-22, and dropped the match in game 4, 30-24 before 871 fans at McArthur Court.
Oregon is now 16-7 overall and 5-6 in the Pac-10.
“It’s an excuse, but we played like a team that all they worried about was their midterms,” Moore said. “They weren’t ready to play.”
Moore described a lasting impact from this match, while players indicated they’ve bounced back before. Players are expected to have a sheet filled out from scouting the opponent and Moore says half the players were without it.
“It’s a tough loss,” libero Katie Swoboda said. “We should have won and we knew we had to come out strong against them. We have to come out strong against every Pac-10 team. No one’s going to give it to us. It’s our own fault.”
Individually, Oregon’s Gorana Maricic stood out with 25 kills and a .227 hitting percentage. Heather Meyers, who had a quiet game 1, completed the match with 14 kills and hit .357. Newcombe had an off night with nine kills, hitting just .051.
Game 1 started ominously, with Arizona State scoring the first four points – two on service aces. Oregon came within one, 7-6, on a 4-0 run but trailed through much of the game by a point or more and lost the opening frame, 30-23.
The second game started similarly until an Arizona State service error tied it at 17. Three straight Oregon points put the Ducks ahead, 20-17. After being tied at 25, Arizona State pushed Oregon to game point with four straight points for a 29-25 lead.
Oregon scored three straight points, then Margie Giordano closed game two, 30-28, with a kill after an Arizona State timeout.
The Ducks took an early lead in game 3, and kept it. They pushed it to 23-16 on an Arizona State attack error and led 28-22 when Meyers had consecutive kills for the win, 30-22.
Arizona State led most of game 4 and was ahead 22-20 when it used five consecutive points, culminated by a Marina Mercer service ace, for a 27-20 lead. Newcombe decided the game and match on an attack error, 30-24.
“We had people who wouldn’t put any bad play behind them,” Moore said. “They just wanted to keep pouting the entire night and we’ve been doing that all year long and now it hurts you in a match that really hurts you.”
Moore emphasized following the Arizona match the importance of beating teams below Oregon in the standings before the Ducks can focus on the top ten teams. Now, Oregon is tied with Arizona State in seventh place.
“It’s very disappointing and we did not come out ready to play,” Maricic said. “It cost us big time. We knew we are better than them.”
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