Less than a month ago, the Oregon volleyball team was riding high after taking its first three Pacific-10 Conference opponents into the fifth game of the match — something the team failed to do even once last season.
Since Sept. 19, though, the wings have essentially stopped flapping.
The Ducks’ only win in their last 10 matches came against a winless Portland State squad.
“It’s been extremely frustrating,” senior outside hitter Amy Banducci said. “But we need to look ahead at what we can control. We’ve got nothing to lose now. We just have to rise above it.”
After this Thursday’s match at Oregon State — a team that Oregon narrowly lost to earlier this season — the Ducks will get a break from brutal Pac-10 competition and host the University of California-Riverside on Sunday.
“It’s definitely disappointing that we haven’t won,” sophomore setter Sydney Chute said. “But we’re not dwelling on the past. We’re only looking to improve from here.”
In comparison to recent years, the players know they have made improvements under first-year head coach Carl Ferreira. In their 3-1 match loss at Washington, the Ducks won their seventh individual game in the Pac-10 — two more wins than they had all of last season.
“We’ve had some key aspects of our game come together that weren’t clicking before,” Chute said.
Confidence is magic
Although they have yet to win a Pac-10 match, the Ducks are still remaining optimistic about the second half of the season.
“We know we can do it,” Chute said. “We have confidence in the coaching staff and each other. We just have to prove what we can do.”
A win this week could give the team a much-needed boost.
“We are hurtin’ a little bit,” Banducci said. “But we have been in a lot of close matches and showed that we can compete in this conference.”
Setting the stage
Setter Julie Gerlach was on a mission Friday at Washington. The 6-foot junior from Scottsdale, Ariz., recorded 13 kills and hit .480, both career highs. The performance came after Gerlach was benched for a match against Arizona the previous week.
Her 2,193 career assists rank fifth all-time in school history. Gerlach and Chute are both benefiting from more touches with Ferreira’s new offensive system. Together, the duo is averaging 10.3 assists per game.
In the leaderboard
A school record 7,298 fans watched the No. 5 Arizona Wildcats (15-2, 8-1) sweep Pac-10 powerhouse USC (14-1, 8-1) last Friday. The Women of Troy, the nation’s top hitting team, were held to a mere .139 attack percentage in Tucson. As the nation’s second-best attacking team, the Wildcats also hit a below-average .219 from the floor.
The 10th-ranked UCLA Bruins (12-5, 7-2) beat Arizona to give the Wildcats their first loss of the season Thursday night. The Bruins trail USC and Arizona by just one game atop the Pac-10 standings.
All three teams swept Oregon in their first meetings of the year
