While the Oregon football team had little trouble dispatching UCLA Thursday, the No. 16 Duck volleyball team ran into a bigger challenge against a pair of Southern California opponents this weekend.
In only their second road trip of the Pac-10 season, the Ducks endured a sweep at the hands of hosts USC and UCLA. Oregon’s record now stands at 16-5 overall and 4-5 in Pacific-10 Conference play.
A tightly contested 25-21, 25-20, 24-26, 23-25, 15-10 loss to No. 8 USC on Friday was particularly tough to stomach. The Ducks jumped out to an early first-set lead, but couldn’t hold on down the stretch. After getting edged in game two, Oregon won the third and fourth sets, setting up a decisive fifth set, which is only played to 15 points.
With the score tied at seven, the Women of Troy went on an 8-3 run to seal the victory.
“The USC match was disappointing,” Oregon coach Jim Moore said. “We had a lead in game one and we kind of let that slip away. That was a match that would have helped us tremendously.”
While the Ducks let an opportunity pass them by in the fifth set, senior outside hitter Heather Meyers suspects the match was actually lost in the opening set.
“We didn’t execute in the first game and I think if we executed in the first game it would have been a different result,” Meyers said.
Granted, stopping the Trojans offense was a tough task all night for Oregon. USC hit a gaudy .392 as a team and an impressive .462 in the final set.
Oregon’s blocking up front struggled again, with little the Ducks could do against the sheer size and strength of USC’s hitters.
“They’re huge,” Moore said. “They hit over us and we didn’t block very well. They’re a very good hitting team.”
Although limited to a .244 hitting percentage, Oregon’s offense did play fairly well against the Women of Troy.
Meyers was sharp, tallying a team season-high in kills (25) and points (29). Alaina Bergsma chipped in with 13 kills and setter Lauren Plum had nine kills to go along with 51 assists.
“I think we did actually a pretty good job,” Meyers said of Oregon’s close loss.
A 25-23, 25-17, 25-18 loss to No. 11 UCLA on Saturday wasn’t nearly as competitive. The Ducks only hit .191 as a team, and seemed to come unraveled after a close first set.
“It was very disappointing,” Moore said. “It was just one of those nights that didn’t go very well and we weren’t clicking offensively.”
Meyers again led Oregon in kills, with 10, and freshman Ariana Williams hit a team-high .462, but many of the Ducks’ better offensive players had off-nights.
Oregon’s porous defense was also to blame for the loss. An average UCLA offense hit over .300 for the first time in a Pac-10 match all season.
“They were passing everything on a dime and that makes it really hard on the block,” Moore said.
It’s possible that the emotionally draining five-set loss to USC the previous night was partially to blame for the Ducks’ poor performance.
“You’re on the road and you go five (sets) in a match you thought you had, it’s difficult,” Moore said. “That’s the hard part about playing back to back on the road. As young as we are, we’re going to have to learn how to handle that a lot better.”
Fortunately for the Ducks, they’ll return to the friendly confines of McArthur Court next weekend to take on Cal and Stanford. To have a shot at beating those top-10 opponents, the Ducks will need to eliminate sloppy play.
“We have to get better individually,” Moore said. “We have to be more disciplined. We have to do what we’re supposed to do when we’re supposed to do it every single time.”
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