For their final performance of the season, the Oregon Ducks made their way to Stanford, California, in hopes of earning their first ever win in the Pac-12 Beach Volleyball Championship.
But Oregon’s time in the championship would end just like its previous two seasons: winless.
The Ducks (2-10, 0-3) capped their 2018 season in the Pac-12 Championship by falling to Utah, 1-4, in the first round and then to Arizona State, 0-5, in the contenders bracket.
This is the second straight year Oregon ended the season on a six-game losing streak. It’s the fourth consecutive season the team only recorded two wins.
The Pac-12 Championship opened with an early match of Oregon, the No. 9 seed, against Utah (5-11, 0-1), the No. 8 seed.
The Ducks put up a strong fight against the Utes, as three of the five courts went into third sets.
On court No. 5 Oregon duo Marine Hall-Poirer and Kyra Hanawahine began the match by winning their first set, 21-14 over Utah’s Brianna Doehrmann and Lauren Sproule.
Oregon’s Ronika Stone and Maggie Scott rode the high energy and rallied back from a 4-10 deficit to win their first set, 21-18 on court No. 4 against Utes Berkeley Oblad and Lauga Gauta.
Utah quickly snapped Oregon’s momentum, taking the second set victories on both courts No. 5 and No. 4 and forced them into third sets.
Hanawahine and Hall-Poirer came out on top, clinching the win on court No. 5 in the third set, 21-14, 15-21 and 15-10, to give the Ducks their first, and only, win of the day.
Oregon’s lead was short-lived.
Utah claimed the win on court No. 4 to tie the match 1-1 with a third set victory of 18-16.
Utah took the upper hand of the tie with a two-set win, 21-15, 23-21, on court No. 2 over Oregon’s Taylor Agost and Josie Cole.
Duck duo August Raskie and Lindsey Vander Weide tried to redeem the match for Oregon by forcing court No. 1 into a third set but ultimately fell to Utah 19-21, 21-12, 15-3. Utah secured the 4-1 match win with a final victory in court No. 3 over Lauren Page and Willow Johnson.
The loss sent Oregon into the contenders bracket where the Ducks faced the No. 7 seed, the Arizona State Sun Devils.
Arizona State (11-19, 0-6) made quick work of the Ducks with a 5-0 sweep. Oregon got the closest to the Sun Devils in a set two loss of 17-21 on court No. 4 with Stone and Scott facing Sun Devil duo Katie Cross and Cierra Flood. Contrary to their performance in the earlier match of the day, Hanawahine and Hall-Poirer fell in Oregon’s biggest deficit to Arizona State, 10-21, in the second set on court No. 5.
Follow Maggie Vanoni on Twitter @maggie_vanoni