Winning is proving to be the best therapy for the Duck volleyball squad.
After consecutive sweeps last weekend — the first time Oregon won back-to-back matches since 1991 — head coach Carl Ferreira and his team are riding high this week as they prepare for their toughest test of the season: Southern California and UCLA.
The win at Oregon State was the Ducks’ (9-10 overall, 1-9 Pac-10) first in the conference under Ferreira. The team’s nine wins are the most since 1997, when Oregon finished the season with nine victories.
“There’s no doubt that winning lends itself to confidence,” said Ferreira, Oregon’s first-year head man. “We started the second half of the Pac-10 how we wanted to start the first half.”
The players know they have finally revealed their potential, and understand that they will have to step it up another notch against two top-10 teams this weekend at McArthur Court.
“We’re playing together as a team and we’re doing a great job,” sophomore defensive specialist Kristin Ferris said. “Our chemistry is really strong right now, which just adds to our confidence.”
A much more relaxed Oregon squad showed up for the California-Riverside match at Mac Court last Sunday, when Ferreira was seen dancing during a timeout. Most of the team could only laugh at the coach’s attempt at the two-step.
It was no laughing matter for the Highlanders, though, as they went home with a 3-0 loss.

Still Flexin’
Although the team has practiced the one setter offense, Ferreira said he is sticking with the 4-2 Flex, which features both setters (Julie Gerlach and Sydney Chute) in the lineup.
“We haven’t gone away from that philosophy,” Ferreira said. The Flex “has been the stability of what we’ve done this year. It would be crazy for me to go away from that.”
The team went to the one-setter scheme in the Oct. 7 loss to Arizona. Since then, Gerlach has come off the bench to provide the Ducks with another key weapon.
In her first game back, the junior setter had a career day against the Washington Huskies, recording 13 kills and a .480 attack percentage.
“We used to leave Julie in for all six rotations,” Ferreira said. “But we’ve added some ball control players to stabilize our control. I really like the substitutions that we’ve done.”
In the new mix, Ferris has seen more action, as has sophomore middle blocker Amanda Porter and freshman outside hitter Alisha Stevens.
Against Oregon State and Riverside, the three combined to play in all but one game, and tallied a total of 14 kills on just three errors — a .306 attack percentage.

Head of the class
Gerlach and senior outside hitter Amy Banducci are approaching career marks on some of Oregon’s all-time charts.
Banducci ranks sixth on the Pac-10’s active digs list with 806. She leads the team this season with 2.66 digs per game.
As a freshman, Gerlach sealed her place in Oregon’s history books with 1,540 assists in 1998 — second best in school history. Her 2,217 career assists ranks fifth on Oregon’s all-time list. She also ranks sixth among active leaders in the Pac-10.