No. 25 ranked Oregon volleyball lost in straight sets to the undefeated USC Trojans Sunday afternoon at Matthew Knight Arena. They’ve now lost three of their last five matches.
The Trojans (22-0, 10-0 Pac-12) are the No. 1 ranked team in the nation and are likely to retain that spot after another flawless weekend. They won the first two sets by scores of 25-18 and won the third 25-16.
“They played awesome,” Oregon head coach Jim Moore said. “I mean, they played great. They put tons of pressure on us and that’s what we haven’t been handling.”
“We just get rattled and get caught up in the emotion and we can’t do that.”
Oregon (10-9, 4-6 Pac-12) jumped out to early leads in both the first and second sets and looked capable of keeping pace with the Trojans at times. However, in the end, USC star middle blocker Samantha Bricio and company were too much for the Ducks to keep up with.
Bricio, a reigning two time All-American, led all players with 15 kills and just two errors.
“The advantage they have with having Sam, who is the best player in the country, is that anytime they need something they can go to her,” Moore said. “She went 15-2 and at one time was 13-0.”
“She’s just really freaking good.”
Oregon middle blocker Kacey Nady echoed Moore’s sentiment that Bricio is the best player in the country.
“I think (Bricio) is the best player in the nation for multiple reasons,” Nady said. “One of those reasons is she has an awesome team to back her up.”
Trojan sophomore Niki Withers added 14 kills and had just one error. Sophomore libero Taylor Whittingham had 19 Digs.
The Ducks struggled to find a consistent go-to threat on offense, in part because freshman outside hitter Lindsey Vander Weide was limited by an ankle injury that she suffered during the UCLA match on Friday.
“I can’t jump as high and it hurts to land a little more,” Vander Weide, who is second for the Ducks in kills this season, said. “The part that made me really mad is that I’m half as slow, so I can’t get to the balls that I would normally get to.”
Sumeet Gill led the Ducks with eight kills and Amanda Benson had 15 digs.
Oregon showed small flashes throughout the match of being the confident, talented team that many expected to contend for a Pac-12 title this year. They were at their best mid-way through the second set.
Trailing 19-10, the Ducks came roaring back with a 7-2 rally that was propelled by kills from five different players, and trailed just 22-17 at one point before the Trojans put them away.
“I think we’re trying to be at positive as they can be, and at times we’re playing great,” Moore said. “We need to play better defense…we just need to put it together.”
“Against a team that plays really really well, we’re gonna have to play really, really well and it’s gonna be tough to do that when we don’t have quite the confidence that we should.”
The Ducks have been victims of a brutal Pac-12 schedule of late and three of the last four teams they faced were top ten opponents. Their schedule will finally ease up a bit next week when they travel to play the Colorado Buffaloes (13-9, 5-5 Pac-12) on Oct. 30. They will then face the Utah Utes (7-14)(1-9) in Salt Lake the following night.
Follow Jarrid Denney on Twitter @jdenney50