Five days after Oregon beat Washington State to earn its first home win in the Pacific-10 Conference in nearly five years, Oregon has another opportunity for its second Pac-10 win.
Oregon plays at Stanford today at 7 p.m. and at Cal Friday at 7 p.m.
Cal presents an intriguing opportunity considering Oregon challenged the then-No. 14 Golden Bears on Sept. 29. Oregon started slow and lost its first two games, 30-25 and 30-16. They recovered to win game three 30-28, but succumbed in game four, 33-31.
Mira Djuric matched her kill total of last Saturday night with a match-high 17 kills against Cal. Senior Kelly Russell had 15 kills, a 0.316 hitting percentage and three service aces.
To prepare the team for Cal, Oregon head coach Jim Moore showed the team film of the first match. When they finished he asked his team what they saw. Responses came back: We hit balls out of bounds, served too many balls out of bounds and didn’t block very well.
“We didn’t play extremely well, but we played extremely hard and that’s what we have to do,” Moore said.
The day after Oregon’s confidence-builder against Cal, the Ducks lost in three to then-No. 3 Stanford. Oregon started strong, losing game one by two points, 30-28, before losing games two and three 30-15 and 30-23, respectively. Djuric had 18 kills and Russell had 11. Libero Katie Swoboda had 13 digs.
Oregon played some of its best volleyball of the season that weekend. The Ducks have played well against top programs and then had difficulty with lesser opponents.
“We’re relaxed against the big level of competition,” Moore said. “I think against the teams that we know we have to beat, that’s where we’re struggling and that’s where you have to change that.”
Getting past that first win, Oregon’s biggest hurdle in conference play, is huge, Swoboda said.
“It’ll help us relax a lot knowing that we can do this and stay calm,” Swoboda added. “You got to start somewhere and I think that is a good building block for our team.”
Stanford and Cal have problems themselves at the halfway point of Pac-10 Conference play.
Promising Stanford freshman Cynthia Barboza is going to miss the rest of the season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee in a match against Cal last weekend. Barboza is second to Djuric in the conference with 297 kills to the Oregon freshman’s 300. Stanford (18-3 overall, 7-2 conference) maintains a hold on second place in the conference behind No. 2 Washington and is on a two-match winning streak.
Cal (13-5, 6-3) has lost consecutive matches to Stanford and Arizona. Angie Pressey is second in the conference in kills with 4.52 per game and Samantha Carter is third in assists with 13.22.
One win into the Pac-10, Oregon is focusing on maintaining its momentum.
“We are going to be on a high from winning this game (against Washington State), obviously and we are going to come out and we can always play better against good teams and we play with them, so we’re going to go down there and give them a run for their money,” Stephanie Alleman said.
Swoboda, after not playing against Washington State due to a concussion, said she hopes to be able to play today, but she is focusing on returning next week when Oregon plays USC and UCLA at McArthur Court.
Alleman will fill again as Moore said the junior fits in seamlessly. Against Washington State, Alleman had 18 digs.
Tasha Demkiw filled in briefly when Swoboda first exited Oregon’s sweep to Washington. Swoboda left toward the end of the third game after her head collided with Russell’s knee.
“I have total confidence in everyone on my team,” Swoboda said. “They’re just going to do as good a job. I’m not going to be selfish about it. I knew they were going to do just fine. Even though I want to be out there I got to get better first.”
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