The Oregon women’s volleyball team made significant steps this weekend towards becoming a respectable force in the Pac-10.
The Ducks (12-3 overall, 2-3 Pac-10) went 1-1 in their road trip to Washington, losing to the No. 5 Huskies (13-3, 3-2) 3-1 and beating Washington State (13-7, 1-5) 3-0.
“Our level of play was great -we executed well – but we made some silly errors at silly times,” coach Jim Moore said in an Oregon press release. “We have to be smarter than that when playing teams of this caliber.”
Moore said earlier in the week that he wanted his team to try and limit their errors, believing they had a chance against Washington if the Huskies wound up making more mistakes.
It nearly worked as the Ducks took the first game, winning 26-30. Oregon also out-hit Washington for the match, .230 to .222 and committed fewer errors as well, 23 to 24.
The Ducks put a scare into the defending NCAA champions, but dropped the final three games, 30-22, 30-23 and 30-27.
“(The players) are real disappointed, but we have to move on,” Moore sad.
Sophomore hitter Mira Djuric led the Ducks with 19 kills and 22.5 points while five Oregon players recorded at least nine kills against the Huskies.
The second match seemed easier in comparison as Oregon distanced itself from the Cougars, winning in three straight games, 30-25, 30-21 and 30-25.
Though the scores indicate a decisive victory, the Ducks still had their fair share of struggles, hitting .129.
“We played really good defense, and despite our struggles on the attack we were still able to win in three,” Moore said.
The defense turned out to be the deciding factor, limiting Washington State to a -.014 hitting percentage. Moore credits sophomore libero Katie Swoboda for the team’s defensive prowess.
“Katie is so good, she was the catalyst tonight,” Moore said. “She had three to four impossible digs and made everyone else better as a result of her play.”
Still, Moore believes that the team still needs to learn how to play well on a consistent level.
“We built big leads in every game and let (Washington State) back in,” Moore said. “We’re still learning how to win and this was a good situation for us to be put in. Overall, I’m very, very pleased.”
Oregon will play a homestand this week against the Arizona schools. Both games start at 7:05 p.m. with Arizona State on Thursday and Arizona on Friday.