The No. 17 Oregon women’s volleyball team made the last Civil War at McArthur Court a night to remember.
With a season-high crowd of 2,346 in attendance, the Ducks cruised to an easy three-set sweep of visiting Oregon State on Friday, 25-15, 25-12, 25-16.
The win upped Oregon’s all-time lead in the Civil War series to 62-41-1.
In a match that took only one hour and 10 minutes to complete, Oregon hit a gaudy .433 and only committed seven hitting errors. Simply put, the Ducks dominated in every facet of play.
“If (we) played like this every time, (we) can beat almost anybody and we just have to have that confidence and that focus,” Oregon coach Jim Moore said.
Heather Meyers led the Duck offense with 14 kills and a .520 hitting percentage. Katherine Fischer had 13 kills and hit .367, and Alaina Bersgma had 11 kills and hit an even .500.
A big reason for those impressive statistics? Freshman setter Lauren Plum.
Plum’s passing helped four other Oregon players hit over .300 — the first time that’s happened this season.
“Lauren Plum played very, very well tonight,” Moore said. “Lauren’s very deceptive and she’s very quick.”
Plum had 44 assists on the evening, an impressive total for a three-set match.
Twelve of those assists helped spark the Ducks to an easy 25-15 first-set win. That had added significance because of the Ducks’ recent struggles in first sets — Oregon had dropped the opening set in its each of its last four matches.
“We had been talking about it all week long that it doesn’t matter how we practice,” Moore said. “We need to have that focus when we start and they did a great job of that.”
Oregon State actually jumped to a 4-1 lead to open the second set, but Oregon quickly recovered, going on a 9-1 run to seize control. The Ducks had their highest hitting percentage of the match in the second set at .500.
Any thoughts that Oregon might come out overconfident in the third set were quickly quelled. The Ducks stormed out to a 9-4 lead and ended up taking the set 25-16.
Like its fast start, Oregon’s strong finish didn’t happen by accident.
“We had the same intensity going into the first set as going into the third set,” Meyers said.
That led to arguably Oregon’s best performance of the year.
“I think it was long overdue,” Plum said. “It was about time we got it together, so that was good.”
The Ducks played at a high level on both sides of the ball. While the offense set a Pacific-10 Conference season-high for hitting percentage in a match, the defense played just as well, limiting Oregon State to a .128 hitting percentage and forcing 16 errors.
“Everything was clicking,” Meyers said.
That said, while Oregon’s miscues were few and far between, Moore said the Ducks still have plenty to work on.
“Our blocking is still not good,” Moore said. “We have to get much better blocking and it’s about being consistent and it’s about coming out with that focus and it’s about doing that every single day and every single play.”
But in the immediate aftermath of Friday’s win, Oregon’s focus was less on its blocking woes and more on reality that the Civil War rivalry had run its course at Mac Court.
“Ernie (Kent) was so wonderful to me when I got here and the first year and talked to us about what the Civil War means,” Moore said. “(Kent) taught not just my team the but taught me what this is all about, so it means a lot.”
Winning in such dominant fashion put an exclamation point on the evening.
“There’s so much history in this place — it’s so great to finish with that,” Meyers said.
Oregon next travels to Los Angeles to take on USC at 7 p.m. Friday and UCLA at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
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