Friday, entered Sunday’s contest against the Colorado Buffaloes (14-11, 6-8) very confident. The Buffs entered this match fresh off winning their five-set thriller against Oregon State. 

The Ducks started the first set on a 3-0 run from some effective serving from Mimi Colyer, with her pinpoint placement. Oregon’s serving was a major factor in their win, something that impressed head coach Matt Ulmer. 

“That was our best serving performance,” Ulmer said. “I know we got a lot of aces, but even if they weren’t aces, I just thought it was really consistent pressure.”

Oregon went on a 4-0 run early in the set to make it 8-2, highlighted by pinpoint ball placement, which forced Colorado to make tough plays and put it out of its comfort zone. The defense looked very sharp from the start, only making 10 errors the whole game compared to Colorado’s 21. 

The Ducks started on another run later in the set behind two Kate Thibault aces and some very athletic kills from Hannah Pukis and Colyer. Thibault ended up leading the Ducks to a 8-0 run while she was serving, which then stretched to a 12-1 run to win the set 25-7. 

The first set was a masterclass for Oregon. It played to its strengths, finding the spots in between the Colorado defense, scoring points very efficiently. 

The second set started with a 3-0 run for the Ducks, along with some defensive heroics from Thibault and great serving from Elise Ferreira. 

The set then became a back-and-forth affair with Colorado’s efforts to be more aggressive really showing. This aggressive approach seemed to reinvigorate the Buffs spirit-wise, and they were still able to find their spots and slowly settle into the match more, lock-in defensively and stop Oregon from stringing together runs. 

Once Colorado started hitting the ball to the back of the Oregon defense, it started having a lot more success. It looked like Oregon was going to put together a run and finish out the set, but the Buffs were resilient and really solidified their defensive approach, fighting off an Oregon set point at 24-23. The Buffs then strung together a 3-0 run to win the set 26-24, shocking the Ducks. 

The third set began right where each team left off in the second, in a back and forth fashion, seeing a 5-5 scoreline through the first 10 points. Morgan Lewis, along with Colyer and Gabby Gonzales, dominated at the net offensively, which kept the Ducks in control of the game no matter how resilient the Buffs were. 

The Ducks found themselves in a close fight towards the end of that set, but a 4-0 run spurred by the excellent serving of Gonzales saw the Ducks win the third set 25-20, giving them all the momentum headed into the fourth set. Even though it was back-and-forth, Oregon settled in during the set and found their groove even with the adjustments made by Colorado. 

Colyer continued her dominance in the fourth set, serving for a 7-0 Oregon scoring run where it seemed like Colorado had no route back into the match. Pukis rattled off two aces during a 4-0 run to put the Ducks up 12-3. 

Pukis found a way to stuff the stat sheet and impact the game in many different ways. Her contribution was noted by Colyer as a large part of what makes them great, “I think Hannah is so good and I think our ball control is so good right now that any ball she gives us is good.” 

After two very resilient sets, Colorado seemed much more pedestrian than they had since the first set, which led to them trailing by a lot for most of the fourth set. Colyer and Gonzales took over, helped tremendously by the defense and passing by Pukis, propelling them to take control of the match. 

The Ducks would not be denied this set, controlling the whole way and finishing off the Buffs in the fourth set 25-9. This was a really excellent performance by Gonzales and Colyer, whose offense was opened up by Colorado’s focus on defending Bacon, Lewis and Kara McGhee. 

Both Colyer and Gonzales finished with 15 kills, while Pukis added six of her own and racked up 45 assists. 

Oregon looks forward to getting revenge on No. 5 Stanford away on Thursday while Colorado travels down to Tempe to take on the Sun Devils.