The Oregon women’s volleyball team’s road trip ended by mixing positive and negative. Sophomore libero Katie Swoboda achieved a milestone, but No. 24 Oregon lost its third-consecutive match.
Oregon fell to Arizona State in four games Friday night with scores of 30-23, 14-30, 27-30 and 21-30. The defeat leaves Oregon facing what is likely its most difficult portion of the schedule. Within the next two weeks, Oregon plays No. 2 Stanford, No. 12 California, No. 6 USC and No. 5 UCLA.
The Ducks (17-7, 7-7 Pac-10 Conference) received a match-high 20 digs from Swoboda, who set an Oregon single-season record in the process. She surpassed 900 digs for her Oregon career and now has 917 overall and 469 for the season. Swoboda moved into 10th place on the school’s all-time list.
“Katie continues to prove, match-in and match-out, that she is one of the top college liberos in the country,” said head coach Jim Moore in an Oregon press release. “She is going to have plenty of records here before she leaves Eugene.”
Arizona State’s libero Sydney Donahue matched Swoboda in setting a record for digs – in Donahue’s case, the Sun Devils’ all-time school record. Donahue collected her fifth dig early in the second game to pass previous record-holder Christy Nore with 1,598 digs. Donahue, who also ended the match with 20 digs, has 1,613 digs in her three years in Tempe, Ariz.
The two schools flip-flopped wins in the first two games. Oregon led for much of the third game but attack errors created an opening for Arizona State to take the lead. The evenly contested game featured eight lead changes and 16 ties until Arizona State took control and won, 30-27.
Arizona State led 8-4 to begin game 4, but Oregon responded with four-consecutive blocks and eventually led 9-8. Arizona State managed to take control and won game 4, 30-21, to clinch the victory.
Oregon’s Mira Djuric had 16 kills, while freshman middle blocker Sonja Newcombe had 12 kills and 14 digs. Newcombe posted seven total blocks, including two solo blocks. Outside hitter Erin Little gave Oregon 13 kills.
Karen Waddington led Oregon with a .364 hitting percentage and had five blocks. Setter Nevena Djordjevic contributed 10 digs and 36 assists.
“Not to take anything away from ASU, but we did ourselves in with too many costly mistakes,” Moore said. “I don’t know if going five (against Arizona on Thursday) took something out of us, but we just weren’t sharp tonight.”
Arizona State’s Nina Reeves guided the Sun Devils with 19 kills and six solo blocks. Margie Giordano had 16 kills and 18 digs.
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Sun Devils best Oregon in four
Daily Emerald
November 11, 2006
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