Once the ball was received from Ohio State, a kill was bound to happen.
When Gabby Gonzales went to set up Hannah Pukis for the set, Kara McGhee knew where it was going; straight to her. As she crept up to the net and Pukis, she ducked down before using her 6’5 frame to spike the ball for her 11th kill of the night to give the Ducks some comfort in the final set of the night.
McGhee finished with a team-high of a .579 kill percentage in the four-set battle against Ohio State.
When two of the top 25 teams in the country face each other, it’s expected that it’ll be a good fight, and this preseason matchup between two future conference opponents was nothing short of that.
With two sets that went into extras, the Ducks recovered from their first loss of the season with a 3-1 win over No. 15 Ohio State.
Right from the start, the game was set at a fast pace from Oregon. In the beginning, Ohio State was only able to score off of Duck errors. The Buckeyes were able to use a couple of dumps to add points on the board, but it was Oregon’s errors that kept the game close.
Until the middle of the set, Oregon could only maintain a two-point lead. Ohio State tied it for the first time at 12 and when the Ducks would take the following point, the Buckeyes continued to tie the game until they took the lead at 15-14.
Since Pukis joined the Ducks after transferring from Washington State last season, she has had the luck to start scoring streaks for Oregon when she’s behind the service line. With her in the back of the court, the Ducks were able to come from behind and take the lead as the first set came winding down.
With 16 ties and eight lead changes in the first set alone, the game extended past 25 before Oregon took a 1-0 lead at 28-26.
Besides the opening point of the second set, it all belonged to Oregon. A 4-0 scoring run gave them a three-point lead, something that Ohio State couldn’t break until the middle of the set.
As Ohio State continued to inch closer to Oregon, the Ducks went on a 4-0 scoring run to cushion their lead before the Buckeyes called timeout. When both teams came back, Oregon extended their run to 6-1 for a six-point lead.
An 8-2 run that featured three kills and two blocks from Morgan Lewis gave Oregon a comfortable lead until Ohio State went on a 7-0 scoring run to tie the game at 20.
A service error by Ohio State gave the Ducks a break and allowed them to go on a 3-0 scoring run before the Buckeyes created their own 3-0 run to take the lead in extras and eventually win set two.
Back-and-forth scoring between both teams continued until the Ducks went on a 3-0 scoring run to break the cycle early in the third set. Point by point, each team battled until the halfway point was near. Oregon went on a 6-1 scoring run to double its points from Ohio State.
The Buckeyes put together their own scoring streak to cut the deficit to four, but it wasn’t enough as the Ducks responded with a 5-0 run to end the set and pushed the Ducks to the top with a 2-1 lead.
The same pace that Oregon started the game with gave the Ducks an early cushioned 11-4 lead after two scoring runs to open the final set of the game. That same energy was kept throughout the entirety of the set. A 3-0 run before an Ohio State timeout took the Ducks to 22, three points away from the win. Gonzales ended it with a kill to bounce back from their first loss of the season last night against Minnesota.
Oregon will head to Pittsburgh for one more preseason challenge before the start of the regular season. The first game will take place on September 14 at 4 p.m. PT against the host, Pittsburgh.
