The term “takeover” doesn’t often get used in a team sport like Volleyball. 

But there might not be another term to describe the offensive outburst from Alanah Clemente in the fourth set. In a set that the Ducks needed to finish out the match, and one that they fell behind most of the way, it was Clemente’s offense that shined through as the catalyst for Oregon’s (8-1) 3-1 victory over Oregon State (5-4). 

“It felt amazing,” Clemente said. “I trust my setters and I know they trust me, and to go after it like that, it’s so great.”

“I think our offense was pretty extraordinary in some areas, especially Alanah, she was pretty great tonight,” head coach Trent Kersten said. 

The Ducks soared in the early season portion, most recently picking up two out of three wins in a weekend trip to Long Beach. The Beavers started the season on a three-match losing streak, but carried a five match win streak heading into Thursday evening. 

Oregon started out in a standard, one-setter lineup, which it used to run a taller group to begin the game. 

The Ducks used their height to jump out to an early 4-1 lead in the opening set, but the Beavers came storming back to tie the set at six. 

Oregon State fell behind towards the end of the first, but the Beavers switched strategy and started serving directly toward Oregon’s highest scorer this season, Valentina Vaulet. This funneled the offense away from her on the outside due to how fast they like to pass. 

The set was tied as late as 23, but the Ducks failed to get a side-out and let up an ace to end the set 25-23 for the Beavers. 

The second set left off right where the first ended and continued the back-and-forth slugfest. 

The Ducks took a sizable lead, but Beavers closed in and got to 21-19, but Oregon slowed down its passing and found Sophia Meyers and Vaulet in the middle for kills. 

The Ducks closed out the set 25-20 after a smart timeout from Kersten and a slightly slower offensive attack that ensured solid attacks. 

“We have this thing called ‘being with the horses and being calm’ so I feel like we’ve worked really hard on that and that helped us tonight staying focused when we were down,” Clemente said. 

Oregon controlled the early portion of the third set and forced the action to the back of the Beavers’ lineup, which allowed Oregon to bypass OSU’s strong block. 

The Beavers took a 22-20 lead after a couple errors from Oregon, and lost just two of the next five points to hold off the Ducks in the third, 25-23. That was until Kersten used his challenge to tie it back up and waive that point off for a touch at the net by the Beavers. 

It ended up being Oregon State’s mistakes that cost it the set. After the set was tied at 25, the Beavers made two net errors on attacks that ended up successful, and the Ducks survived and took the third set 27-25. 

The squads traded the opening eight points in the fourth, but it would be the Beavers to take the first run. OSU made it 9-4 fairly quickly. 

“We had a lot of belief that whole set,” Kersten said. “Even being down 8-12 or 8-13 and then there was the one challenge that we got to go our way and some other things that happened in that set, but the belief stayed consistent throughout the entire team.”

Similar to the beginning of the set, the intrastate rivals started trading points as each team was entering the 20’s. It looked as if the Beavers would force a fifth set after they took a 19-17 lead, but the Ducks once again fought back to tie it up. 

As was the theme of Thursday night, the end of the fourth set was anyone’s to grab. With the Beavers leading 22-21, freshman Alanah Clemente came up with a crucial block to tie it up, which led into a thunderbolt from her in the middle to take the Ducks’ first lead of the set. 

After the Beavers tied it up, Clemente came up big again with another kill to give the Ducks match point. Each team fought tooth and nail, refusing to lose the fourth set — the Ducks aiming at a match win and the Beavers trying to stay alive. 

Clemente just could not stop scoring, she was incredibly in rhythm and her teammates found it easy to get her the ball. Her electric offense took the win for the Ducks in another 27-25 set. 

“I think we can earn points on the defensive side of the ball too,” Kersten said. “Still some opportunities to sharpen up a little bit, but I thought the defensive side of the ball was much better.”

The Ducks closed out a rivalry win in epic style and took a crucial win against the Beavers in four sets. Oregon travels again on Friday to take on the Portland State University Vikings (4-5).