The 2009 women’s volleyball season officially came to an end on Saturday, as the No. 17 Ducks (20-10, 9-9) were knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by No. 13 Kentucky (29-5, 17-3). The 3-0 loss came one day after Oregon defeated Clemson (23-10, 13-7) in the first round.
“Kentucky played very well, there’s no denying that,” head coach Jim Moore said. “But I really think we played not to lose. We knew if we won that match … what the bracket looked like, and I think that got to us a little bit.”
Kentucky jumped off to an early 5-1 start in the first set as the Ducks committed two attack errors. Oregon fought back to within one point, but the Wildcats countered and eventually won the set 25-20. Junior outside hitter Sarah Mendoza had 5 early kills, and the Wildcats blocked six Oregon attacks in the first set.
The Ducks took an 8-6 lead to start the second set, but once again Kentucky was able to eventually take control. Mendoza had six more kills, and the Wildcats added seven more blocks as a team en route to a 25-22 set win.
“Our coach kept saying that we really needed to work on hitting the ball down the line,” junior outside hitter Heather Meyers said. “We got blocked way too many times because we didn’t really execute on that.”
The Ducks came out of the intermission knowing that a win was necessary to keep the season alive. Yet, it seemed that Kentucky had other plans as it rushed out to a 13-9 lead. The Ducks committed 10 attack errors in the third set and finally lost 25-17 to give Kentucky a 3-0 win.
The Wildcats outhit the Ducks .280-.143 for the match and also blocked an astonishing 17 Oregon attacks. They committed only nine attack errors compared to Oregon’s 26 and held all but two Duck hitters to below .200 for the match.
Mendoza hit .275 and led the Wildcats with 14 kills. Junior middle blocker Lauren Rapp added 10 blocks, and senior setter Sarah Rumely had 34 assists. For the Ducks, Meyers hit .211 and had a team-high 16 kills. Senior outside hitter Sonja Newcombe had 14 kills and 10 digs but hit just .111, while senior middle blocker Neticia Enesi hit .176 with 6 kills. Freshman libero Kellie Kawasaki led the team with 14 digs.
“Offensively we just struggled more than we have in the past,” Newcombe said. “Teesh (Enesi) and I didn’t have our best offensive nights, and that just put more pressure on everybody else.”
It was a difficult way for seniors like Newcombe, Enesi, setter Nevena Djordjevic, and libero Amanda Westrick to finish their careers. Still, they are trying to stay positive.
“Obviously you don’t want to end with that type of match,” Newcombe said. “You’d like to go out with a win, or you’d like to go out with a closer match … I really am not going to let this one get me down, because I think we did some great things this year.”
Oregon was far more successful in the first round against Clemson. The team breezed to a 3-0 win, hitting .405 and outscoring Clemson 75-58. The Tigers also had 15 attack errors and just 38 digs to Oregon’s 48.
Newcombe hit .407 and led the team with 13 kills, sophomore outside hitter Dana Stephenson hit .600 with nine kills, and Enesi hit .389 to go along with eight kills. Meyers added 11 kills and a team-high 14 digs and four service aces.
“We were good offensively,” Moore said. “I didn’t think we were very good defensively, we were better defensively (against Kentucky) than we were in the Clemson match.”
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