The No. 2 seeded Oregon Ducks (29-5, 16-4 Pac-12) traveled to Madison, Wisconsin to take on the No. 3 seeded University of Purdue Boilermakers (23-9, 15-5 Big Ten). The Ducks came into the Sweet Sixteen carrying a seven game win streak, while Purdue carried a nine game win streak.
Oregon would use their experience to tremendous advantage, sweeping the match behind 14 kills each from Mimi Colyer and Morgan Lewis.
Oregon showed its advantage in experience early on in the first set, taking a 4-0 lead behind three kills from All-Pac 12 performer Lewis. Oregon’s fast offense was in full effect early-on, which caused the Boilermaker defense to move farther back, so they couldn’t convert when on offense.
Purdue looked like the young team it is, as it had a very difficult time finding a groove. The Boilermakers had a very slow offense and committed some costly service errors early in the match.
Hannah Pukis ran the show as always, providing her teammates at the net with quick sets so the Purdue defenders had no time to set up a block. Many of Oregon’s kills in the first set came with very little defense at the net, which took the wind out of Purdue’s sails a great deal, leading to uncharacteristic mistakes.
The Boilermakers were very pedestrian throughout the first set. This was a byproduct of the rapid, dominating Ducks’ offense that showed no signs of slowing down going into the second set. Purdue had to work overtime offensively to get a rhythm going because of this, which worked in Oregon’s favor because it had no difficulty setting up its defense.
The Ducks finished the set with five blocks and only three hitting errors, behind four kills from Lewis, and three from both Colyer and Karson Bacon. They handly took the first set 25-14.
Purdue showed a lot more life in the second set. The early parts of this set became very back-and-forth, with each team taking a handful of one point leads.
The Boilermakers found success taking hard swings at the ball, forcing the ball to bounce off the Oregon block and side-out. They went on a 5-0 run to take their biggest lead of the night at 13-9.
It again became back-and-forth towards the end after Oregon reinforced its block on defense and found a lot more offensive success. The Ducks had a hard time finding their rhythm and pushing the tempo, but once they did, Purdue again had a very hard time defensively.
Due to Oregon’s rediscovery of its rhythm, it ended the second set on a 10-1 run, winning 25-19 to take a two set lead.
The desire of the Ducks to avenge last year’s tournament was showing throughout. They hit .492 through the first two sets, which reflects the confidence they were playing with.
Purdue started the third set with the same fire that it came into the second set with. Its game plan remained the same, as it continued to try and force Oregon’s block to make errors by driving it right into their fingertips.
Gabby Gonzales was crucial to the Ducks continued control of the game, as she was the most successful server in the game, finishing with three aces.
Purdue was able to build a lot of momentum in the third set behind a tenacious offense, which didn’t allow Oregon to play fast. When the Ducks were on their heels, they had a hard time figuring out ways to really be effective offensively, slowing down their whole game.
Purdue went up 17-15 after two Oregon errors, which spurred the veteran-led Ducks to push harder, trust in their game plan and bring the game back to being very competitive towards the end of the set.
With the set tied at 20, Oregon took a 3-1 run and a two point lead — showing its experience in crunch time. Purdue showed a lot of fight, bringing it back to a tie at 23 in a toss-up of a third set.
After a 24 tie each team had chances to end the set. Finally, after their fifth match point, a block from Bacon propelled them into the Elite Eight, taking the set 29-27 and completing the sweep.
Oregon moves on to the Elite Eight to face the No. 1 seed in the region and hosts the regional University of Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday evening for a chance at the Final Four in Tampa.
