Oregon volleyball can compete in the Pacific-10 Conference. Any evidence needed and remaining questions were answered with Oregon’s four-game loss to No. 16 Southern California Thursday at McArthur Court.
USC started with a game one win, but Oregon responded and shifted from pretender to contender within a matter of points, winning a close game two and nearly forcing a game five with a 30-24 loss in game four.
Oregon (11-12 overall, 1-11 Pac-10) showed that if it maintains a high level of play it can be a serious contender, coach Jim Moore said. The important thing is maintaining that level against lesser opponents such as Oregon State and Arizona State, he said, and Oregon has another chance tonight against No. 21 UCLA at 7 p.m.
“You got to do that every night and if you do … then you have a chance,” Moore said. “We lost because we’re not used to being disciplined for that long of a period of time.”
Oregon’s play shifted in game one with a 6-1 run that brought the team within 26-18. It gave Oregon momentum into game two, which it started with a 6-2 run. Oregon’s fortune, in part, changed with the emergence of outside hitter Mira Djuric, who struggled with a -.385 hitting percentage to start to a .300 percentage in game two as well as five kills and a service ace.
Oregon used a 7-1 run to take an 18-8 lead. USC (12-7, 8-3) responded, but each time Oregon needed kills Jaclyn Jones, Djuric, Kristen Bitter or Karen Waddington delivered a momentum-saving kill that maintained a two-point lead.
Moore made Oregon’s opportunity clear in two timeouts in game two: They could win.
“We didn’t want to lose that game,” said libero Katie Swoboda, who returned after missing the previous three matches with a concussion and had 19 digs.
The match also coincided with a strong performance by Kristen Bitter, who provided a consistent block with six solo and three assisted. Six-foot-4 Bitter matched well with USC’s 6-foot-5 middle blocker Bibiana Candelas, who had 21 kills and seven digs.
“After game one we knew what we had to do and what we had to fix, and I think we did that,” Swoboda said.
USC used an 11-0 run to win game three easily 30-15 before Oregon recovered with a strong game four. Oregon couldn’t overcome the powerful play of Candelas, who had nine kills in a 30-24 game four, the match that ended in a USC win.
By the third and fourth games, USC lessened Djuric’s impact with its powerful block. Moore attributed it partly to Oregon setting the ball too close to the net.
“They are certainly as big as us and if you set that ball inside, they are going to stuff that ball a lot,” Moore said.
Djuric’s powerful serve produced multiple Oregon runs, including a 3-0 spurt in game two and an identical spurt in game three. Her effectiveness disappeared in game four with a serve that went long and a service error.
Djuric finished with 13 kills. She rebounded from Oregon’s last match against California, where she failed to reach double-figure kills for the second time this season.
“We knew coming into this game that we could compete with USC, but it wasn’t about them; it was about our side,” Bitter said. “We knew we had to focus on our play and what we were doing.”
