The final chance to earn a second conference win for the Oregon volleyball team comes this weekend as seniors Kelly Russell and Jaclyn Jones’ Oregon careers come to a close.
“It hasn’t hit,” Jones said. “It’ll hit the very last game for sure.”
With Arizona visiting Friday at 8 p.m. and Arizona State on Saturday at 7 p.m., Oregon (12-16 overall, 1-15 Pacific-10 Conference) faces its first two opponents from the start of conference play. Friday’s match is the second Duck game in Mac Court that night, with the women’s basketball team playing Arkansas at 5 p.m.
Every sport has its senior finales – the last time athletes appear in an Oregon uniform and try for a winning finish. Jones and Russell spent four seasons with an Oregon volleyball program that has struggled in conference play.
Oregon coach Jim Moore, who joined in January, has spent his first year on staff striving to turn the Ducks into contenders, and the seniors helped jump start Oregon’s progress, Moore said.
“We got going in the right direction,” Moore said. “We think we’re doing some good things, but we got a lot more work to do.” Jones agrees and is proud of her time as a Duck athlete.
“I’m glad I got to be a part of the beginning of the change,” Jones said. “It’s going to be neat to watch in the future.”
For Russell, progress came with the little things, such as Oregon’s competitiveness and three straight five-game matches.
“There is improvements being made it’s just not on paper yet,” Russell said.
The pair remained when others left the program in recent seasons, including Sarah Mason (Hawaii) and Dariam Acevedo (Texas). Jones and Russell also dealt with a new coach after working with Carl Ferreira for three years.
“I really love Oregon. … I have a very good life outside volleyball,” Russell said. “So even when volleyball was not going as I wanted I had other things to lean on.”
This season, Oregon started 10-1 before Jones suffered a stress fracture in her leg prior to a tournament at Portland State. Oregon went 3-1 in the five-team field, but lost in sweeps when it faced Arizona State and Arizona to start conference play without Jones.
“That probably is as big an impact on our season as anything,” Moore said. “It shouldn’t have been, but it was.”
Jones returned the following weekend against California.
Oregon lost eight consecutive matches to start Pac-10 play.
Currently 1-15 in conference, Oregon looks to challenge Arizona State, only one game ahead in the conference standings.
And with this weekend, Oregon attempts to complete Russell and Jones’ Duck careers with a win. Russell is second to freshman Mira Djuric in both kills and service aces with 351 and 28, respectively. Jones has 155 kills.
“Kelly … is a great physical player,” Moore said.
Moore’s message of strong effort and focus on Oregon’s side of the net – repeated throughout Oregon’s season – again holds true if the Ducks hope to win this weekend.
“If you play hard and you do the things you’re supposed to do and you can execute, we can play with a lot of people,” Moore said.

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