Despite a rocky second set, No. 12 Oregon (7-3) beat Oregon State (10-2) in both team’s first Pac-12 conference match with scores of 25-12, 23-25, 25-14 and 25-15.
Head Coach Matt Ulmer said he thought senior setter August Raskie had her best match since she’s been at Oregon, with five kills, a match-high of 50 assists and eight digs.
“I thought August [Raskie] had a really good week of practice,” Ulmer said. “Tried some different tactics with her to try to get her to feel more comfortable running the offense and so I was really anxious to see how we would do tonight and I think she did a really great job.”
Even with Raskie’s offensive stride, Oregon was unable to clinch a second-set win. They trailed close behind the Beavers for much of the set, by no less than three points and tying with Oregon State seven times.
Oregon senior outside hitter Lindsey Vander Weide said they were undisciplined in the second set.
“I don’t think it’s that we’re letting up, but maybe that we start to feel comfortable, just comfortable in our play,” Vander Weide said. “We just need to work on keeping that same mindset throughout the whole game not just through certain sets.”
Ulmer agreed.
“When we beat a team well, soundly, we kind of let up a little bit,” Ulmer said.
After making necessary adjustments following the second set, the Ducks bounced back with a 5-0 run. Despite an initial 1-0 lead for the Beavers, Oregon secured and maintained its lead for the entirety of the set, for a 25-14 win.
Oregon State Head Coach Mark Barnard attributed the Beavers’ inability to maintain their momentum partially to a loss of sophomore outside hitter Hailey Bennett who left the court with an apparent leg injury in the third set.
“We started slowly and then we kind of edged back a little bit and then we lost our main attacker at that stage and I think people didn’t really recover from that,” Barnard said. “We made a change, but it didn’t give us the same attacking options.”
The Ducks followed their third-set victory with another to win the match 3-1. Leading the Ducks was Vander Weide with 14 kills, Raskie with 50 assists and freshman libero Brooke Nunviller led with 20 digs.
Oregon will play Washington State at home in Matthew Knight Arena on Sunday at noon PT.
“Washington State is a massive team, height-wise a very physical blocking team,” Ulmer said. “They’re bigger than Oregon State. … We have to stress them.”Follow Sierra Webster on Twitter @WebsterSierraE