Volleyball

The “Mac-Attackers” were out in full force Thursday as the Ducks took on rival Oregon State at McArthur Court.
The close relatives of the “Pit Crew” roamed the sideline as the Oregon volleyball squad searched for its first Pacific-10 Conference win of the young 2002 season.
The circus-like atmosphere — which included taunts from both team’s fans — quickly subsided as Oregon State dominated the match and swept the Ducks (30-22, 30-25, 30-25) in front of 1,060 people.
The Civil War provided to be more civil than a war as the Beavers outplayed the Ducks in almost every category except errors. Oregon committed 25 attack errors and hit for a .114 percentage, while Oregon State (6-7 overall, 1-4 Pac-10) was not much better at .289. The Beavers, however, were good enough to earn their first Pac-10 win.
“You’ve got to score points with kills, aces and blocks, and you can’t give the opponent free opportunities,” head coach Carl Ferreira said.
Senior Lindsay Closs led the Ducks with 10 kills while sophomore Lauren Westendorf and freshmen Dariam Acevedo and Kelly Russell all pitched in with nine. Overall, Oregon had just 41 kills in 140 opportunities.
Oregon State received offense in the shape of Allison Lawrence’s 14 kills, while Michele Solomon and Karah Rhoades each had 10.
“I felt Oregon State played a great game, but we didn’t play our game,” Westendorf said.

The loss marks Oregon’s 26th straight in Pac-10 play — a streak dating back to 2000 — and is the Ducks’ fifth loss in the past six matches against the Beavers.
“I think it wasn’t Oregon State,” Russell said about the key to the match. “It was Oregon. There’s things we need to work on as a group.”
Coming into the match, Oregon recognized the need to play together as a team and minimize its errors, a common problem in its recent losses.
That was tough against a stingy Beaver defense, a group that recorded 61 digs and six team blocks.
Still, Ferreira attributed Oregon’s woes primarily to what the Ducks did, and in some cases, didn’t do.
“I didn’t think we allowed ourselves an opportunity to stay in the match,” Ferreira said.
The Beavers led from the get-go, jumping out to a 10-5 lead early in the first game. Oregon clawed its way back to a 14-14 tie, but Oregon State immediately went on a hot streak to lead again, this time 20-15.
A four-point scoring run later in the set allowed the Beavers to remain ahead, 24-19, a lead they would fail to relinquish.
Game 2 provided no more relief for Oregon than the first, although the early match doldrums that plagued the Duck offense seemed to go away. In fact, the Ducks went on two runs that netted them at least three points each, runs that were vital to keeping them in the game.
But Oregon State was able to shake off Oregon’s attack with a six-point run midway through the game to leap ahead, 24-18. Again, despite a late Duck surge, the Beavers held on to go up 2-0 and stay in command of the match.
“It’s very disappointing,” Ferreira said. “I thought they controlled the match because we didn’t allow ourselves to get into it.”
Facing elimination and its sixth loss via sweep this season, Oregon again fell behind early in game 3, although the final set proved to be much closer than the previous two.
But the Ducks committed 10 attack errors and hit for a .087 percentage during the final game as Oregon State slowly pulled away in the latter half of the set for the victory.
“The disappointing thing tonight is that the things we knew it was going to take to be successful, we couldn’t accomplish,” Ferreira said.
Russell may have summed it up best.
We’re “frustrated, disappointed,” she said. “It’s Oregon State and we’re home and we had all the fans behind us.”