Fans rose to their feet, staring at Hannah Pukis.
She held the ball straight out in front of her, taking a deep breath before she threw it up and hit it over the net. The ball fell in the middle of Arkansas’ defense for a service ace.
Matthew Knight Arena got loud, celebrating the eight point scoring run administered by Pukis.
“I was a big fan of that,” head coach Matt Ulmer said. “[Arkansas] is a high-level passing team, and to get them off rhythm, you have to have good serves and Hannah did that.”
Despite a rough first set, Oregon beat Arkansas in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday night 3-1 in front of 3,000 fans, a new postseason record, to stay undefeated at home and extend their win streak to 15, the greatest in school history.
The first set put the Ducks in jeopardy. They were at risk of losing every streak that they built during the regular season. With miscommunication, bumping into each other, letting in-bound balls go untouched and sending kills into courtside seats, Oregon did not look like the nationally 10 ranked team in the country.
After 11 attack errors on 22 attempts, Oregon had a 0% attacking percentage.
“I can’t remember the last time we hit that bad,” Ulmer said.
Throughout the entire season, each player has said that when this team is in sync, they’re really hard to beat. After Pukis’ scoring run, they rediscovered that cohesiveness. They communicated and relied on each other, covering each spot on the floor during that eight point scoring run. Hitting leaders, Colyer and Nuneviller, found their groove, and finished the night with double-digit kills. The Ducks saw their hitting percentage rise to 61.3% by the end of the match and forced the reeling Razorbacks to use every timeout.
Despite the scoreline, Arkansas challenged the Ducks throughout the night. The Razorbacks went on large scoring runs and saved at least two match points during each set. But in the fourth set, Oregon took off and separated itself.
Oregon held Arkansas to nine points in the final set. After an early 9-1 scoring run, the Razorbacks were forced to call their final timeout. Out of the six timeouts that Arkansas called, the Ducks immediately responded five times with scoring runs.
“Oregon played much, much better,” Arkansas head coach Jason Watson said. “They played cleaner and more relentless.”
After Colyer had a kill from the left side, the Razorbacks tried to set up for a clean attack, hoping to extend the game a little longer, but Colyer sent it right back to end the game.
The team rushed to the court, and held up a poster with the NCAA bracket. Nuneviller held up an Oregon sticker and placed it on the line as the entire arena celebrated the advancement.
Oregon head to the regional semi-finals for the fifth time in program history. The Ducks will face Nebraska on December 8 in Louisville, Kentucky. The game will be available to watch on ESPN+
