After taking down the No.1-ranked Minnesota Gophers, the Oregon Ducks moved up six spots to No. 12 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association coaches’ poll.
In addition, Oregon freshman libero Brooke Nuneviller earned Pac-12 freshman of the week, recording a total of 44 digs throughout the team’s two top-5 matches last weekend.
The Ducks defeated now-No. 7 Minnesota Friday evening in four sets at the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge. The victory marks the program’s first win over a top-ranked team since the 2012 Final Four. Nuneviller led both teams with a season-high 28 digs.
Nuneviller recorded a team-high 16 digs, in Oregon’s loss to No. 5 Penn State on Saturday.
“Brooke Nuneviller is really good,” head coach Matt Ulmer told Go Ducks after Oregon’s win over Minnesota. “I thought she set the tone right away. She made a couple great digs to start the match, digs that people didn’t think she could make, and I thought that got everyone engaged like, ‘Okay, we’re going to play some defense now.’”
Following the first eight matches of her freshman season, Nuneviller leads the Oregon program with 121 digs and is ranked third in the Pac-12 with 4.65 digs per set. This is her first career Pac-12 honor.
As a team, Oregon is ranked second in the conference with 16.69 digs per set. UCLA ranks first with 17.77 digs per set.
Two other Pac-12 schools are in the top-15 of this week’s AVCA poll. Stanford moved to No. 2 after defeating both then-No. 1 Minnesota and No. 5 Penn State at the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge. Washington dropped a spot to No. 13 after losing to Pittsburgh, 3-0, on Saturday.
Oregon will play its final nonconference matches this week against Hawaii, starting with Thursday’s match at 10 p.m. (P.T.) in Honolulu, Hawaii.
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