As I and two other Emerald colleagues were sitting in my living room back home in the Bay Area last weekend preparing for the Stanford football game, I asked one of my colleagues to check the score of Oregon’s volleyball match with then-No. 1 UCLA.@@http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7174820/ncaa-ucla-volleyball-assumes-no-1-spot@@
Although the Ducks had played well against the Bruins when the teams met in Southern California earlier this year, I fully expected UCLA to record a relatively easy win.
Instead, Oregon pulled out one of its more remarkable victories in recent years; a game that stands out as a landmark win for several reasons.
Not only did the Ducks beat a No. 1 team for the second time this season (the Ducks beat then-No. 1 Penn State in the season opener as well) but they erased a 2-0 deficit in doing so. That’s not easy to do against any team, let alone the best in the country.@@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=234&SPSID=4284@@
It wasn’t like Oregon narrowly edged UCLA in the final three sets, either.
The Ducks demolished Bruins 65-42 over those three decisive sets, putting an exclamation point on a victory that validated the Ducks’ status among the nation’s elite volleyball teams.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=234&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205331777@@
Sure, losing to USC the next night dampened some of the excitement, but Oregon has shown enough to be considered one of the few teams in the nation that can, on any given night, beat any team in the country. Beating two top-ranked teams in three months affords a team that distinction.
The question becomes then, where does Oregon go from here? The Ducks have four games left in the regular season (at Stanford and Cal this weekend, then a home-and-home with Oregon State next week to conclude the season). Barring an astonishing collapse (i.e. losing twice to a woeful Oregon State team) the Ducks have essentially locked up a berth in the NCAA Tournament.@@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=234&SPSID=4284@@
The volleyball world probably won’t expect much from Oregon in the tournament, even with their impressive resume. The Ducks lack experience (they don’t have a senior on their roster) and still aren’t considered a big-name volleyball program.@@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=234&SPSID=4285@@
Oregon can take the first step to proving the pundits wrong this weekend. The Ducks have road dates with No. 3 Cal and No. 5 Stanford. After this weekend, the Ducks will have played four of the top five teams in the nation in eight days. Such is life in the rigorous Pac-12 conference.@@http://www.gostanford.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/111611aab.html@@
If Oregon can beat either the Bears or the Cardinal — which would give them a 2-2 record in the four-game stretch, the Ducks would be well-positioned to host an NCAA Tournament regional.
The top 16 seeds in the NCAA Tournament host regionals and although the volleyball tournament selection committee has made some questionable choices in the past, a victory over yet another top-five opponent would give the Ducks a minor boost (probably two or three spots) in the American Volleyball Coaches Association rankings — up from their current No. 15 — and make it hard to deny them a chance at hosting.@@http://avca.org/divisions/division-one-women/@@
Hosting a regional would provide numerous benefits for the program. First and foremost, Oregon wouldn’t have to endure a lengthy and disruptive road trip to some isolated part of the country. They’d be able to sleep in their own beds and focus only on volleyball.
It would also give the Eugene community a rare opportunity to get behind its volleyball team with a sense of purpose. Aside from a home match with Cal when more than 6,000 fans showed up, attendance at Matthew Knight Arena has been sparse.@@https://www.nmnathletics.com//pdf8/790065.pdf?ATCLID=205312988&SPSID=4287&SPID=234&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
It’s not quite time to assess Oregon’s chances in the tournament — that will come next week, after we see how the Ducks fare against even more competition. It is safe to say, however, that Oregon is now a team to be reckoned with, even more so if they’re able to close the season strong and host an NCAA Tournament regional.
Drukarev: Victory over top-ranked Bruins validates Oregon’s status among nation’s elite
Daily Emerald
November 16, 2011
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