No. 3 Oregon volleyball team started the first leg of their four-game road trip with a 3-0 straight set victory over the University of Arizona Wildcats in Tuscon on Friday night.
Alaina Bergsma led a balanced attack for the Ducks, netting 13 kills with Liz Brenner adding 12 of her own. Both Ariana Williams and Katherine Fischer contributed nine each as well.
As the match opened, once again Oregon looked poised and very sharp. They jumped out to an early 6-2 lead over a young Arizona team and forced head coach Dave Rubio @@http://www.arizonawildcats.com/sports/w-volley/mtt/rubio_dave00.html@@to call timeout before the set became out-of-reach.
But the timeout did not take the Ducks out of rhythm one bit.
Turning point. After the stoppage, Oregon proceeded to go on a 10-0 run fueled primarily by Alaina Bergsma and Lauren Plum which, in essence, put the crucial first set out of reach.
The Wildcats were never able to get within striking distance of Oregon and a service error by Chanel Brown@@http://www.arizonawildcats.com/sports/w-volley/mtt/brown_chanel00.html@@ gave the Ducks a 25-14 first set victory. The second set began a little more challenging for the Ducks as they found themselves knotted at four with the young Arizona team early in the set.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=234&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205716140@@
As the set wore on, neither team was able to gain any type of separation, and Arizona eventually took a 12-11 lead.
The Ducks were eventually able to right the ship and regained the lead at 14-12, and Rubio called timeout to try to re-center his squad.
Following the timeout, the set remained tightly contested and the teams reached a tie at 21.
The Oregon attack proved to be just too much for the Wildcats and an Ariana Williams kill at the net gave the Ducks a 25-23 second-set victory.
The Ducks did not take their foot off the pedal in the third and jumped out to an early 6-2 lead.
After the timeout the Ducks took command of the set and Arizona was never able to get any type of offensive cohesion going. At one point Oregon led the Wildcats 20-11 and an attack on the net by Liz Brenner gave the Ducks a commanding 25-18 third set victory and an overall 3-0 win over Arizona.
On the horizon. The Ducks will stay in the state of Arizona. Up next for them will be a showdown with Arizona State tomorrow night at 7 p.m. in Tempe, Ariz.