No. 6 Oregon volleyball defeated the No. 7 UCLA Bruins 3-0 in straight sets on Friday night at Matthew Knight Arena in their final regular season game at home. Alaina Bergsma led the team with 18 kills and setter Lauren Plum had an effective match with 37 assists.
The Ducks came out in the first set looking somewhat flat, a theme that has become rather commonplace in the past few weeks, and fell down to the Bruins 8-3 early.
Following a Jim Moore timeout, a slew of errors on the UCLA side allowed Oregon to tie the first set up at 11. After the Bruins fell down 12-11 on an attack error, UCLA head coach Michael Sealy@@uclabruins.com@@ called time to try to stop the Oregon momentum.
As the set progressed, the Ducks were able to cling to a small lead and led 18-17 in the latter part of the set.
The Bruins tied the set at 18 and then again at 20, but in the end a Liz Brenner attack secured a first set victory for Oregon 26-24.
Oregon came out with a much more effective start in the second set and were able to enjoy an early 9-6 lead, which forced Sealy to call timeout with his team already trailing by a set.
After the timeout UCLA was able claw back into the set and tied the frame at 10.
During the second half of the set neither team was able to gain any type of separation, and the lead was traded back and forth multiple times. However, a brief spurt by the Bruins gave them a late set 18-16 lead.
Turning point. Oregon was able to battle back and tie the set at 20 and a kill by Katherine Fischer gave the Ducks a 25-23 second set victory and a commanding 2-0 lead at home.
At the start of the third set, the Ducks showed no sign of slowing the offensive clinic they had been putting on and jumped out to an early 6-3 lead. The Bruins were able to weather the storm though and tied the third set at 9.
Jim Moore’s squad did not falter and halfway through the third had regained a three-point advantage at 14-11.
The Bruins would not go quietly and eventually tied the third at 19 after a 4-0 run. With his lead gone, Moore called timeout to try to urge his team to close out the match.
After the timeout the Ducks did just that, and an attack error by UCLA gave Oregon a 25-21 third set win and victory in straight sets.
On the horizon. The Ducks will finish up the regular season Friday night in Corvallis to take on the Oregon State Beavers in the season’s second installment of the Civil War. Following that game, Jim Moore and his team will wait to hear where they will be playing in the 64-team NCAA tournament that will be announced on Nov. 25. The match with OSU will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.