The Oregon volleyball team had its weekend ruined by the Evergreen State.
The Ducks faltered in home matches against No. 13 Washington and Washington State, dropping their record to 3-13 overall and 0-7 in Pacific-10 Conference play.
Saturday’s match against the Cougars (7-11, 3-5) featured the two youngest teams in the conference. With a combined 21 freshmen on both rosters, Washington State made fewer mistakes en route to a 3-0 (30-20, 30-26, 30-25) victory.
“We took rhythm and opportunity away from ourselves tonight,” Oregon head coach Carl Ferreira said. “It would be very easy to use inexperience as an excuse, but we’re not going to hide under that.”
The Ducks built a 17-12 lead in game three on the strength of five consecutive points. The Cougars, however, returned the favor, scoring 10 of the next 11 points to put the game — and match — out of reach.
“I thought we had great team chemistry (Saturday),” freshman Stephanie Alleman said. “We just didn’t have the energy.”
Sarah Mason led the Ducks with 12.5 points, while Jaclyn Jones added 10 points. Jodi Bell finished with a match high 35 assists, and Katie O’Neil added 15 digs.
Alleman saw extended playing time against the Cougars, contributing a pair of digs as a defensive specialist.
“Stephanie has practiced and played significantly better than I thought she was going to play all around,” Ferreira said. “For her to have the ability to play at this level with only high school experience is truly amazing.”
Oregon faced a much more experienced opponent the night before, dropping the match to No. 13 Washington, 3-0 (30-20, 30-24, 30-19).
The Ducks built a 19-14 lead in game two when a Mason kill capped a 7-2 run. The Huskies (13-4, 4-4 Pac-10) battled back to take a 24-23 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.
“We fought hard and we kind of let it slip away from us at the end,” junior Lauren Westendorf said. “We let them get on runs and then we couldn’t get it back. It’s definitely a frustrating loss.”
Mason led the Ducks with 14.5 points, while Westendorf added 12.5 points and a team-high 10 digs. Bell led Oregon in assists with 32.
Oregon out-attacked Washington 114-101 but was unable to take advantage of its opportunities. Ferreira said the loss was more about the Huskies making plays than the Ducks making mistakes.
“The (Huskies) are very methodical and very efficient,” Ferreira said. “They somewhat out-execute you in the long haul.”
Five of Oregon’s last eight losses have come to top 15 teams. Despite taking their lumps from older, more experienced teams, the Ducks won’t shy away from competing and learning from the nation’s elite.
“We love it,” sophomore Kelly Russell said. “We all knew that this is how it is coming in and this is what we all want. We don’t want to play teams that aren’t good.
“We want to be up there and striving for the best, because that’s what we want to be.”
The Ducks have yet to win a game against a Pac-10 opponent and have lost 12 of their last 13 matches after starting 2-1.
The Ducks travel to Arizona for matches against the Wildcats on Thursday and Arizona State on Friday. They will then return home for matches against UCLA, USC and Oregon State starting Oct. 23.