With a 3-1 win (31-33, 30-27, 30-24, 30-26) over the Portland Pilots (6-16 overall, 2-9 West Coast Conference), the Oregon volleyball team finally got out of the rut that led them into a 15-match losing streak. With their first win since Sept. 8, when they defeated Boise State, the Ducks improve to 9-16 overall.
“We flat out dominated the net with blocking and that was huge,” head coach Carl Ferreira said. “We scored a lot of points and minimized our errors and showed growth and maturity. We’re coaching to play our best volleyball in November, so I’m happy about this win.”
The win means nothing in Pacific-10 Conference play, though, as the Ducks remain 0-13.
But this is a monumental step for the Oregon women. After suffering through a two-month-long drought, the season was looking bleak and disastrous. Although they are still winless in conference play, the win brings a new vigor to the team.
“We were pretty confident we were going to walk away with a win,” senior Monique Tobbagi said. “Toward the end of game one we picked up our level and by game four everything was just clicking.”
Junior Lindsay Closs had a career-high 10 blocks Tuesday to pace Oregon, while Tobbagi also came in strong for the Ducks, stopping the Pilots with six blocks.
Junior blocker Amanda Porter had her best match of the season, posting a career-best .636 hitting percentage and tying a career-high with six blocks. Defensively, Lindsay Murphy led the Ducks with 16 digs.
The win also marked the return of junior blocker Stephanie Martin, who sat out Friday’s game against No. 4 Stanford with a knee injury. Martin had 12 kills and four blocks against the Pilots.
But the Ducks also know they need to make it happen in the Pac-10 as well. Ferreira sees the nonconference matchups as important, especially since they offer a break from the ultra-competitive Pac-10.
“It’s all about learning what the Pac-10 is,” he said. “The consistency (of play) will follow the mature responsibility of doing it all the time.”
In game four against Portland, the Ducks sealed their four-point win with two solo blocks and 10 block assists, en route to a match high 17 total blocks.
But the team as a whole stayed strong enough for the win.
Led by senior junior Anna Abatzoglou, who had a career-high 18 kills in the match, the pesky Pilots kept the Ducks at bay until they finally caved in. In the first game of the match, Portland held off the Ducks to win by a scant two points, essentially putting the match in their hands.
But the resiliency of the young Oregon squad showed through, and this time it paid off dividends.
A 30-27 win in game two put the match back in reach, and it showed in game three as the Ducks again took a game from the Pilots. The 30-24 win put them ahead of their opponent for the first time since a loss to Idaho State on Oct. 14.
One game and seven total blocks later, the Ducks had pulled out their first win in almost two months with a 30-26 win.
The Ducks now take momentum into their match against Oregon State at McArthur Court Friday.
Hank Hager is a sports reporter for the Oregon Daily Emerald. He can be reached
at [email protected].