The Oregon volleyball team fell in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament over winter break, failing to advance past the third round for the second straight year. But this time, instead of a conference rival taking out the Ducks, it was tournament Cinderella story Iowa State.
Oregon lost in five sets to Iowa State on Dec. 12 in Austin, Texas, stopping a match up with top-seeded Texas in the Elite Eight.
The Cyclones (22-13) came into the field of 64 teams unranked, but after their upsets of Minnesota in the second round and Oregon (25-9), they finished the season at No. 12.
The match started off in Oregon’s favor, with the Ducks taking a 2-0 lead with scores of 25-17 and 25-11. However, the Cyclones rallied with identical 25-22 wins in the third and fourth sets to even the match and force a fifth set. In the final set, Iowa State hit a scorching .650 to put away the Ducks at 15-8.
“It was a really disappointing way to end the season, especially after how well we played the first two sets,” Oregon head coach Jim Moore said. “We had a tendency this year to let down, and that’s what happened again.”
It’s especially painful this year, as Moore thought his team was good enough to play for a national title. Oregon’s run to the Sweet 16 had been easy to that point, as the team easily defeated Delaware 3-0, and North Carolina 3-1.

The loss also meant the graduation of four members of the team. Seniors Gorana Maricic, Katie Swoboda, Kristen Forristall and Marija Milosevic all played their final game in Austin, and Maricic, Swoboda, and Forristall left their marks on the record books.
Maricic leaves as the third all-time points leader in school history with 1,217 and ninth in kills with 1,089 in just two seasons. Forristall is second all-time in hitting percentage with a career mark of .316, and Swoboda finished with 2,198 career digs – good enough for first in Oregon history and second all-time in the history of the Pacific-10 Conference.
The team also did well in post-season awards. Maricic and juniors Neticia Enesi and Sonja Newcombe were named to the All-Pacific-10 team in early December, and Swoboda was named as an honorable mention.
Nationally, the trio of Maricic, Newcombe and Enesi also earned spots on the AVCA All-American Team. Maricic and Enesi were both named to the second team, and Newcombe received an honorable mention nomination. This is the second year in a row that Maricic has been selected as a Second Team All-American.
In the 2008 volleyball season, coach Moore led the Ducks to the most wins since 1984 with 25, and the highest Pac-10 finish since 1987 at 11-7 and fourth place. Oregon finished the season ranked ninth. The team was in the top 12 of every poll this season.