Volleyball notes
While the Oregon volleyball team remains mired in a 26-match Pacific-10 Conference losing streak, the Ducks can take solace in the fact that they have improved in at least one offensive category.
Oregon has 132 service aces in its first 19 contests, compared to 137 during the 2001 season. At their current pace, the Ducks, who average just under seven aces per match, will reach last season’s total when they take on No. 13 UCLA on Friday in Los Angeles.
If Oregon holds true to its pace for the rest of the season, the Ducks would finish with 222 aces.
While the Ducks occupy last place in terms of wins and losses, they are currently second in the Pac-10 in service aces, only behind Washington, which has averaged 2.34 aces per game in Pac-10 play.
“We are an aggressive serving team,” senior Lindsay Closs said. “We just take it to every team we can.”
Closs leads the Ducks with 24 aces while freshman Jodi Bell is close behind at 23.
Bell hasn’t been the only freshman to light up the scoreboard from beyond the service line. Kelly Russell has 16 aces while Oregon’s freshman four — including Dariam Acevedo and Jaclyn Jones — have accumulated 53 total aces, good enough for 40 percent of the team’s output in the category.
“We end up jump-serving a little bit more than we have in the past,” head coach Carl Ferreira said about the spike in service aces from last season. “We wanted to take some risks in regards to winning the serving and passing matchup.
“If I’m a fan watching the match, I’m wondering how a team can not keep the ball in 900 square feet of court. Well, at the same time, percentages will tell you that if you allow a team to stay in system, their opportunities to side out are going to be very, very high. So there is a risk-reward factor associated with the serving matchup.”

Pac-10’s best
The Ducks will be heading into a lion’s den of sorts when they travel to Los Angeles to take on the Bruins on Friday, and No. 1 USC the following day.
Not only are the Trojans considered to be the best team in the nation — by rankings and by analysts — they recently defeated No. 4 Stanford, allowing them to stake claim as the team to beat in the Pac-10.
The Bruins, on the other hand, are not as formidable to rest of the Pac-10, but to Oregon, they are dominating. The Ducks have never defeated UCLA in Los Angeles, and have come out on top just once — in 1987 — en route to a 35-1 advantage in the all-time series for the Bruins.

More on those freshmen
Not only have Oregon’s freshman four been stellar on the serve this season, they have also produced during play, accounting for 373 of Oregon’s 974 kills this season. That’s equal to 38 percent of the team’s output.
In fact, Russell was so good earlier this season, she was named the Most Valuable Player of the Fremont Loan and Investment Tournament, held in Northridge, Calif. Russell came through with 42 kills as Oregon won all four matches it played during the tournament.