The Oregon volleyball team’s season moved closer to its conclusion after losing two matches on its final road trip of the season.
A short trip that began with a flight to Pullman, Wash., Thursday morning and a match against Washington State that night, which ended with a bus ride to face No. 3 Washington on Friday night.
Succinct travel plans didn’t match Oregon’s play with the Ducks (12-16 overall, 1-15 Pacific-10 Conference) losing to Washington State (9-21, 2-15) in five games and the following night to No. 3 Washington in three.
The Washington State loss marked Oregon’s third consecutive match lost in the fifth game after previous home defeats against Oregon State and UCLA.
“It’s the first time since the ’80s that we’d either won or went five (games) with three straight Pac-10 teams, so there’s some good that can come out of that,” Oregon coach Jim Moore said. “It’s just really frustrating when not a single one of them was a win.”
The progress Oregon had hoped for was a .500 record and more Pac-10 wins than in the past, but that goal has been altered. The team now uses challenging Pac-10 teams rather than winning as the current measuring stick.
“The hard part is you have to measure it by wins and losses,” Moore said. “But the reality is it comes down to a pride thing on how you play and how you perform and it becomes an internal thing.”
Oregon started Pac-10 play with high hopes for possibly an NCAA Tournament berth, which disappeared as optimism changed to frustration. Oregon lost its first two road matches at Arizona State and Arizona without an injured Jaclyn Jones.
Oregon earned its lone conference win against Washington State in October and had looked forward to playing the Cougars again.
Instead, Oregon fell behind early as it lost two of the first three games. Oregon tied the match at two games apiece with a 38-36 game four win in the Ducks longest game of the season. Washington State won with a 15-6 game five and prevented Oregon from earning its first sweep of a Pac-10 team since 1996.
Oregon freshman Mira Djuric had a team-high 20 kills. Senior Kelly Russell contributed 18 kills and 10 digs, and freshman Erika Bartruff had a career-high 12 digs and 28 assists.
The next match in Seattle against Washington ended in a quick three-game sweep. Washington, which has become a national contender, used 15 kills from Sanja Tomasevic to help seal the victory over the Ducks, one night after the Huskies clinched their second consecutive Pac-10 championship.
“We kind of controlled them the first two games, and I challenged them to stay connected emotionally because you can drop off, and little things can happen,” Washington coach Jim McLaughlin said. “This game, the ebbs and flows, they are happening all of the time. We held them off and beat that team in three – it was a good win.”
In the first two games, Washington took early leads of 13-4 and 10-1, respectively.
When Oregon finally recovered, taking the lead in game three, Washington tied the score at 11 with a Duck error and a Tomasevic kill. After four more ties, the Huskies went ahead 16-15. Washington expanded its lead to 25-20 and finished the match with back-to-back blocks from Christal Morrison and Brie Hagerty. Oregon hurt itself in the last game with 11 attack errors.
Djuric had 10 kills and freshman libero Katie Swoboda dug 17 balls.
Academic honors
Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen announced the conference women’s volleyball All-Academic teams Monday. Eligible players must have a minimum 3.0 overall grade-point average and be either a starter or significant contributor.
Oregon’s Kristin Bitter made the first team and Erin Little graced the second team. Stephanie Alleman, Heather Madison and Russell were honorable mention selections.

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