Oregon’s five-match losing streak wasn’t weighing heavily on the mind of the Ducks entering Monday night’s match against Portland at McArthur Court.
Instead, the Ducks said, it was just another contest, another way to get to the 10-win plateau.
Oregon (10-8 overall, 0-4 Pacific-10 Conference) fought off a pesky Portland (10-4) squad in front of 473 fans at Mac Court, taking the Pilots in four games (30-28, 35-33, 27-30, 30-27).
In a match reminiscent of Oregon’s loss to California Friday night, Portland constantly pushed the Ducks to the brink, forcing four lead changes during the second game before Oregon could come away with the victory. This time, however, Oregon had enough energy in the end to stave off
late attacks.
“The Cal match taught us a lot,” sophomore Lauren Westendorf said. “We have to work hard throughout the whole match.”
Four Oregon players reached double-digit kill marks, led by junior Lindsay Closs’ 17. Freshman Kelly Russell had 16, freshman Dariam Acevedo came up with 15 followed by junior Heather Gilmore’s 13.
“It was definitely a better balance,” Closs said about Oregon’s offense.
Freshman Jodi Bell, further showing the promise that she carried upon her arrival into the Oregon program, was credited with 36 assists and one service ace.
Defensively, the Ducks teamed for 62 total digs, led by Gilmore’s 13.
Oregon started games 1 and 2 with four-point scoring runs only to be rebuffed by the Portland offense. In game 1, the Ducks and Pilots dueled to the end with Oregon outlasting Portland on the Pilots’ serve and attack errors.
Game 2 proved to be even tougher for the Ducks to move ahead. Two four-point runs propelled Oregon to an 8-2 lead early on.
The Ducks would eventually make it 20-13 in their favor, but hit a roadblock on the way to the win. Portland reeled off five straight points to come within two and later pulled ahead 23-21 on Gilmore’s attack error.
“Scoring runs allow separation, that’s basically how it works,” Oregon head coach Carl Ferreira said. “In games 1 and 2, I think we got out to big leads and then they got scoring runs to get back. We were very fortunate to win game 2 because we had 14 hitting errors.”
True to Ferreira’s words, the Ducks struck back late in the game with a four-point streak, setting up a situation similar to the California match. After the score was knotted at 29, the lead changed hands four times, finally broken by senior Sydney Chute’s kill.
“We’re never surprised about how to execute in late game situations,” Ferreira said. “They were able to draw back and gain strength (in
the end).”
After falling to Portland in an even tougher game 3, Russell and Closs broke through the Pilot defense in game 4 to pull the Ducks to the victory. Russell chipped in with five kills during the frame and Closs had four.
“It was good to play somebody here at Mac Court and have our fans,” Russell said. “It’s so great to get a win here.”
The match marked the seventh time this season Oregon has taken an opponent to four games or more, and the Ducks improved to 4-3 in the situation.
After hard losses to California and Stanford over the weekend, Oregon recognized the need to get another win on the board, especially with rival Oregon State visiting Mac Court on Thursday.
“It was definitely a win we needed to have,” Closs said.