Oregon volleyball (11-3, 2-2 Big Ten) made a quick turnaround following its first conference win in five sets over Iowa on Friday, to keep Ohio State (3-9, 0-4 Big Ten) winless in conference play with a straight-set win on Saturday evening.

Valentina Vaulet recaptured her form from a 19-kill performance the night before, recording a kill and a service ace to put Oregon up 2-0. As it began to look like Oregon had retained momentum from the win instead of suffering from the length of it, Ohio State rallied for a five-point run.

The Ducks soon found themselves needing a spark, chasing a five-point deficit, and setter Cora Taylor provided it. First, Taylor helped Oregon to a four-point run while serving, then her passing became the engine of Oregon’s offense as it finally kept up with the Buckeyes.

“As a coach, you try not to go, ‘Oh boy, here we go again, here goes a set that we’re just not gonna be very good in,’” Oregon head coach Trent Kersten said after the game. “Then I think Cora got us on a great service run, and she’s been a little bit up-and-down with her consistency, but she got us going twice in that set.”

At 23-20, Ohio State used its first timeout of the set, needing an answer to Oregon’s momentum after kills by Alanah Clemente and Sophia Meyers sparked the team. The Ducks retained their momentum, and Holley McFadden and Meyers sealed the set at 25-21 with a block.

McFadden finished the match with seven total blocks, one short of the career high she set against in the opening game against the University of South Dakota.

“Talk about Holley’s growth, and the way she’s been forced into the fire about learning this position at this level, and coming out and executing at a high level,” Kersten said. “For a freshman, she is taking such ownership of her own development right now, and I’m so proud of her for that, and when you have performances like this, we have to celebrate them.”

After Ohio State took the first point of set two on a service error, the Ducks went on a seven-point run behind excellent serving from Vaulet. The run included back-to-back blocks from McFadden and Meyers, and after the Buckeyes got one point back, McFadden recorded her second kill of the match to put Oregon ahead 8-2.

Like Oregon in the first, the Buckeyes got back in the set, and they eventually rode their momentum to a four-point run and shrank the Ducks’ lead to 14-12.

The Ducks closed in on match point with a four-point run of their own to make the score 22-17. The deficit was too much for the Buckeyes to overcome, and Oregon secured a two-set lead, winning 25-20.

The Buckeyes didn’t get the start they were looking for in the potentially decisive set, facing an early 5-1 deficit. Ohio State fought back with a three-point run, but Clemente put up an excellent three-point serving run following her own kill to make Oregon’s lead 9-6.

It became Oregon’s largest lead of the match when a six-point run mostly made up of Ohio State attack errors left the Buckeyes trailing 20-10. Oregon took the set, 25-17, with Vaulet recording the decisive kill.

Vaulet finished the match with eight kills, while Clemente led the team with ten. Taylor finished with 27 assists, while freshman Reese Sheppard set a career high with 10.

“What if the train wasn’t off the tracks and we’re just watching this team grow up?” Kersten said about recovering from a 0-2 start with two home wins. “I think this is a really exciting time for this program, and we get to rest on the shoulders of so many people who came before us, and I’m so fired up to get back in the gym with these guys on Monday, and I want them to go celebrate this.”

After a crowd of 2,770 welcomed Kersten and the 14 players who are new to Eugene this season to their first game with students on campus, the Ducks drew a crowd of 2,976 for the second.

“I think the rest of the team is upstairs signing autographs for the 3,000 people that were in attendance tonight, so we want to invest in our community and we want to be a part of this,” Kersten said.

Oregon goes back on the road to face No. 17 USC (10-4, 1-3 Big Ten) on Thursday, Oct. 9, before returning home to host Washington (7-7, 2-2 Big Ten) on Sunday, Oct. 12.