The Oregon volleyball team started conference play on a roll winning seven of its first nine conference games.
The surprise is washing away, replaced by a young team trying to find its way through a long season.
Oregon’s senior night started with promise and ended in a loss as the Ducks fell to No. 15 California on Friday night before 1,842 fans in four games. The crowd was Oregon’s third largest of the season.
With the loss, Oregon slips (17-9 overall, 7-9 Pac-10) into sixth place and moves Cal (19-8, 8-8) into fourth place in the conference standings.
Coach Jim Moore honored seniors Heather Madison, Kristen Bitter, Erin Little and team manager Matt Hartner prior to the match. Oregon appeared to ride its emotions in the opening game, jumping to a 21-16 lead. The Ducks turnaround vanished on three Oregon miscues and a kill by Cal freshman Hana Cutura to tie it at 21. After Oregon took a 25-23 lead, Cal used a 7-2 run to win the game.
In game two, Oregon repeated its 21-16 lead of game one and Cal made a surge to lead 27-25. This time, Oregon responded. Cal had a 29-28 advantage when Mira Djuric made a kill and Cal made consecutive errors to give Oregon a 31-29 win.
Cal cruised past Oregon in the third game, 30-16.
Oregon led 26-25 in game four, only to see Cutura make three of Cal’s final five points in a 30-27 match-clinching win.
“Normally, I feel like we can usually break out of what whatever we’re in,” Little said. “We are pretty good at bouncing back. But I felt like even when we were kind of getting the ball rolling something happened to kind of set us back.”
Oregon must now try and improve with its two final conference matches next Friday and Saturday at No. 4 USC and No. 6 UCLA, respectively. Coach Moore will field a roster of eight players who are either freshmen or sophomores.
“That’s all I really wanted from the beginning of the year was to learn how long the season is,” Moore said. “The only way to really do that is to get in the tournament, which you need to do, and I still think we will. I still think we’re fine.”
The way Oregon lost, so different and uncharacteristic, dampened the night for the three seniors.
“They’ve been such a huge part of us this year and what we’ve done – all that we’ve accomplished and so it’s definitely hard, but they made a big difference this year so I think they can be happy about what they did,” Newcombe said.
Setter Nevena Djordjevic made her presence felt through her 29 assists and 11 digs. Madison had 18 assists and Little posted 14 kills.
Libero Katie Swoboda led Oregon with 27 digs and in the process became the first Duck to pass the 500-dig mark in a single season. She ended the match with 508.
“I think we struggled last week and I think that was growing pains,” said Little of road losses to Arizona and Arizona State. “I think all of us, even the older girls (are realizing) the season is long and you kind of forget how long it is in the spring and then when you’re back in it – you realize, ‘Wow, I’ve still got two more weeks, three more weeks,’ and so I think it’s all just kind of hitting all of us.”
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