Oregon’s Allyson Leavitt was held to 11 kills as Washington’s Kaitlin Leck (5) and Darla Myhre (11) combined for seven block assists Friday at McArthur Court.
Purple flooded the stands of McArthur Court as No. 1 Washington gathered its 15th sweep of the season and washed out Oregon on Friday.
The Huskies, who nearly lost to Oregon State in a five-game shootout the day before, showed a lack of composure against the Ducks in the first game. Washington regrouped and took the match in three games, 30-27, 30-19, 30-20.
Washington (18-0 overall, 10-0 Pacific-10 Conference) combined its league-leading offense with a mediocre defense to hand the Ducks their eighth-straight loss.
“(Washington’s) system in not very complicated,” Oregon head coach Carl Ferreira said. “It’s one where there’s an efficiency component to it. They run their plays and rely on hitters being playmakers and hitting a variety
of shots.”
Coach Ferreira denounced his team’s downfall to tiring rallies and distractions that correlated to an unsuccessful attack.
“One thing was fatigue, one thing was focus,” he said. “The moment you lose focus you get impatient, and then you no longer sustain that ability to be somewhat methodical about the execution. … As you get fatigued you have to increase your mental focus.”
Defense kept Oregon (9-11, 1-9 Pac-10) in the match as it overshadowed the Huskies’ seven team blocks with 11.5. Junior Kelly Russell collected 13 digs and a match-high seven block assists, and sophomore Kristen Bitter recorded six.
In the backcourt, senior libero Katie O’Neil led Oregon with 16 digs, and sophomore Allyson Leavitt added 14.
“Ally really helps in the back row along with Katie,” Ferreira said. “(Leavitt) is
easily one of our better overall defensive
players. Kelly was the other one that played
well again.
“I think our players are just getting better at understanding the defensive system and executing a scouting report, so I was really
proud about how they executed and
played defensively.”
Despite Oregon’s respectable defensive performance, the Ducks could not contain Washington’s hitting core of young and old. Junior Brie Hagerty led all attackers with a match-high 21 kills and .421 hitting percentage.
Freshman Christal Morrison distributed an equal effort with 14 kills and 15 digs. Senior Kaitlin Leck added 12 kills and 10 digs. Senior libero Candace Lee, a former Churchill High School player, recorded 32 digs.
Leavitt posted a team-high 11 kills on 46 attempts for the Ducks and rotated through every position on the floor. She has been the stabilizer of Oregon’s offense with 35 kills in the past two matches.
“I think we looked really good,” Leavitt said. “We’re playing smarter, and it’s not so urgent. When people get on like Kristen with huge blocks, we get fired up.”
Sophomore middle blocker Kim McNally contributed eight kills and was effective in 40 percent of her attack attempts. Russell added seven kills in
29 attempts.
“What we had tonight was good leadership and great teamwork to give the Huskies the best battle we could,” Ferreira said. “I thought we played with a lot more patience and mental focus from an attack standpoint.”
As a team and individually, the Ducks never sank to a negative mark in terms of attack percentage. Oregon hit for a team average of .128 and stayed in the positive for each game. Washington finished with a .259 percentage and 64 kills. Oregon recorded 37 kills.
“Just to go out and play with them, that’s an accomplishment,” Leavitt said. “We came out with some satisfaction. We weren’t (expected) to win but we played really well.”
