Freshman Dariam Acevedo posted 21 kills and senior Lindsay Closs pitched in with 20 Saturday against UCLA in front of 1,133 at McArthur Court, but Oregon could not pull out a victory against the No. 19 Bruins.
Still, the Ducks (11-17 overall, 1-13 Pacific-10 Conference) — who lost to No. 2 USC in three sets Friday — played their best volleyball of the season in the two losses.
“I’m not disappointed in anything tonight except for the fact that we didn’t beat a top-25 team,” Oregon head coach Carl Ferreira said after the Ducks lost to UCLA in four games (30-24, 30-25, 28-30, 30-27). “We’re chasing something now that we weren’t before and these players believe they can win.”
The Oregon offense was on target against the Bruins (15-10, 8-7), posting a .400 hitting percentage in game 3 en route to .256 overall. In addition to Acevedo and Closs’ dominance, freshman Kelly Russell had 11 kills while sophomore Lauren Westendorf had 10.
Westendorf also had a career-high 15 digs in the loss, while Acevedo matched her seasonhigh with 20.
“I felt that we played our hearts out,” Westendorf said. “We did everything we could have. We executed tonight. We played Oregon volleyball. Everything was there. UCLA just did a lot of the right things in the end and came out on top.”
The Ducks jumped out to a 13-7 lead midway through game 3, but allowed the Bruins to tie the score at 13 on the strength of a six-point run. Oregon, however, proved just as resilient in a seesaw battle between the teams, eventually taking the lead, 29-28, and the game win with Westendorf’s emphatic kill.
Against No. 2 USC, the Ducks were even more in-tune offensively, but the Trojans were just too much in a three game victory (30-20, 30-21, 30-23) Friday in front of 715 at Mac Court.
Freshman Dariam Acevedo (6) and junior Lindsay Murphy were spectacular defensively for the Ducks against the Bruins and Trojans.
“That’s as good a collegiate volleyball roster that you will see in the next 10 years,” Ferreira said of USC. “It’s awesome.”
The Trojans (21-1, 14-1) netted runs of at least seven points in each of the three games en route to the victory. However, the Ducks matched up well with their Southern California opponents.
Overall, USC out-killed (49-34) and out-dug (44-39) the Ducks, but Oregon hung on until the end.
“They averaged 22 points a game, we averaged 18 points a game,” Ferreira said. “So you go, ‘Wait a minute, the second ranked team in the country has got four points a game on you.’ You think that’s not real significant. But over the course of every single game you play, it is very significant.
“I have said this consistently, entirely throughout the entire Pac-10 season. We have played at a top-20 level the whole Pac-10 season. Winning requires you to stay at the top-20 level the whole time. And we can play at that level. I think we’ve proved it week in, week out.”
Closs had 10 kills in the loss, while sophomore Katie O’Neil tied a season-high with two kills and a career best two service aces.
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