Oregon’s first Pac-12 road trip was a success with a win 3-1 win over Arizona on Saturday, after they defeated Arizona State the day before.
Right off the bat, the Ducks dominated play, posting a 7-3 lead early in the first set with kills by junior Taylor Agost and freshmen Jolie Rasmussen and Willow Johnson. After Arizona scored a point off a kill from Penina Snuka, Oregon went on a four-point run, all of them kills. Freshman Willow Johnson started off the streak by putting down two kills in a row. Lindsey Vander Weide and Ronika Stone followed with kills of their own, but Arizona answered by going on a four-point run of their own, narrowing the score to 12-8.
Later in the set, Agost went on a run of her own, scoring three kills in a row and bringing Oregon up to a 17-11 lead. Arizona responded with a three kill streak, with each kill coming from a different player.
Arizona attempted to catch up, but their deficit was too large. Oregon won the set 25-19 after Agost scored her sixth kill of the set. Johnson had the second-most kills with four.
Though the teams began the second set by trading off points, Arizona slowly started to pull away. The score was 11-9 when Arizona began dominating play by scoring four unanswered points. Oregon couldn’t narrow the gap after that as they were unable to go on a streak that yielded more than two points.
Arizona took a commanding 24-17 lead at the end of the match. Oregon finally went on their first significant point streak of the set, scoring four kills. Vander Weide and Stone each scored one, while Agost scored two in a row. But, it wasn’t enough, and Arizona won the set 25-21.
The third set started out in a similar way with both teams trading points to keep the score tied, but this time, it was the Ducks that slowly took the lead by going on the all-important point streak. They scored four points and senior Kacey Nady put down two kills.
Though Arizona was able to break the streak with a block, Oregon went on another four-point run. Ronika Stone scored her eighth kill of the match. Through the first and second sets, she was able to maintain a perfect 1.000 hitting percentage. Stone got her ninth kill later in the set when Oregon scored three more unanswered points, bringing their lead up to 15-7.
Arizona couldn’t narrow the gap after Oregon extended their lead to a comfortable 22-13 after two kills from Vander Weide and Johnson. Ronika Stone put down a kill, her tenth, to win the match with a score of 25-17.
The Ducks kept their momentum up through the beginning of fourth set, doubling up on Arizona with a 10-5 lead. After a kill from Vander Weide, Arizona would tie the game up at 11-11 after a six-point run, three of them scored off attack errors.
After that, the rest of the set was played neck and neck with neither team able to maintain more than a three point lead. With the score tied at 24-24, kills by Vander Weide and Stone allowed Oregon to take the victory with a score of 26-24. Stone led the Ducks with 13 kills and five blocks.
The win extended the Ducks’ win streak to 11. They hope to continue that when they return home to play No. 7 Washington next Friday.
Follow Hannah Bonnie on Twitter @hbonnie03