Road games are being replaced by the comforts of home for the University of Oregon volleyball team. Entering November, Oregon plays six of its final eight matches at McArthur Court.
Oregon’s home stretch starts tonight with Southern California at 7 p.m. UCLA visits Friday at the same time. These first two matches are followed by matches with Portland State and rival Oregon State on Nov. 8 and 10, respectively.
The schedule, with a single road trip left to face Washington State and Washington, gives Oregon (11-11, 1-10 Pac-10 Conference) winnable matches and possibility of a winning record for the first time since 1990, coach Jim Moore said. Oregon finished 15-14 that season under then-coach Gerry Gregory.
Oregon enters tonight coming off losses to No. 5 Stanford and No. 15 California last weekend. Matches finished quickly with each ending in three games. Characteristic of this year’s team, Oregon’s loss to Cal featured 22 attack errors and 12 service errors. Earlier this season, Oregon tested Cal as it stretched the match to four games and almost a fifth.
“We want to play hard,” Oregon libero Stephanie Alleman said. “We know there are teams like Cal we have a chance to beat and play with. For some reason, it just wasn’t our night.”
Alleman has been a steady contributor all season. She had 15 digs against Stanford and 17 against Cal in place of injured libero Katie Swoboda. Moore said Swoboda was cleared Monday to play and will return tonight.
“Stephanie’s done great things all year long in terms of stepping in and playing a lot of different positions,” Moore said. “She’s basically been the first person off the bench all year long.”
All season long Moore has emphasized Oregon’s need to focus on its side of the net and avoid unnecessary service and attack errors. With increased fan support at McArthur Court this season, Moore said Oregon needs a performance worth supporting.
“Hopefully we do the things that we’re capable of doing just for those people that have been coming to the matches and making our lives a lot easier,” he said.
Opportunities are there. Portland State ended Oregon’s five game unbeaten streak to start the season. Oregon led two games against Oregon State before collapsing. Oregon beat Washington State at home. Oregon matches up well with Arizona State.
Oregon needs do things offensively in these matches it has missed in Pac-10 play – things it did early in the season and in the spring, Moore said.
“To pull off one other (win) would be great, but that’s where my frustration lies. We haven’t been winning the matches that we should be winning,” Moore said.
Big names dot USC’s roster with libero Debora Seilhamer, Staci Venski and Bibiana Candelas all playing prominent roles. Seilhamer leads the Pac-10 with 6.48 digs per game. The Trojans have won seven of their last eight matches.
USC (11-7, 7-3) may have seven losses, but all came against quality competition with matches against No. 2 Washington, No. 3 Penn State, No. 4 Stanford, No. 5 Notre Dame, No. 6 Florida, No. 9 Hawaii and No. 18 California. Hawaii is the current home of ex-Oregon player Sarah Mason.
UCLA (11-8, 4-6) enters after a tough loss to Los Angeles rival USC. UCLA lost its 11th consecutive match to USC in four games, but two games were within two points including a 37-35 Trojan victory in game one. UCLA has gone 3-3 since hosting Oregon to open October. Freshman Kaitlin Sather’s been a force with four kills per game and tied for fourth in the Pac-10 Conference in service aces per game with .44. She trails Oregon’s Mira Djuric, who’s first with .61.
Continuing a four match road trip that started with USC, UCLA plays Oregon State tonight followed by Oregon Friday and Pepperdine on Tuesday.
“We can always play with UCLA. There’s always a chance there, too, but obviously – we have to beat those teams that we can beat,” Alleman said.

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