In Oregon’s final home volleyball match of the year, patience ruled the floor.
Washington State had it.
Oregon did not.
The Cougars’ tireless pursuit throughout the match proved to be too much for the Ducks (10-15 overall, 2-14 Pacific-10 Conference), who were swept by their conference opponent for the second time this season.
Oregon’s .101 attack percentage helped Washington State (17-8, 8-8) defeat the Ducks for the 10th consecutive year.
“It’s frustrating because they are a very methodical team,” said senior Amy Banducci, who played in her final match at McArthur Court. “We put everything into it, but for some reason it just doesn’t roll our way.”
Heading into Friday’s contest, the Ducks were riding high after a 3-1 win against Washington, which was head coach Carl Ferreira’s first conference win at home.
But the Cougars, unlike the Huskies, showed 832 fans in Eugene why they may be headed for the NCAA Tournament.
“We need teams to make errors,” Ferreira said. “[Thursday] night we forced Washington to make errors — they made 40 errors in four games. Wazzu is never going to do that.”
Although Washington State swept the Ducks, Oregon had several opportunities to keep the match close.
Despite a 6-0 hole in the first game, Oregon battled back to bring it to 8-10. Three straight points by the Cougars, however, ended the Ducks’ rally, as Washington State’s LaToya Harris recorded her second ace to end the game at 15-10.
“It was really difficult because before we knew it we were down,” Banducci said.
Game two was all Oregon — at least at first.
A kill by freshman Lindsay Murphy gave the Ducks a 10-4 advantage, and perhaps the idea of another come-from-behind victory.
But it was not to be.
Washington State called a timeout and quickly knocked the Ducks out. Led by Harris’ jump serve, a strong blocking game and some costly errors by Oregon, the Cougars came back to win game two, 15-11.
“They made some errors [early in the game], but they don’t beat themselves,” Ferreira said. “They have execution patience. In game two, we lacked patience. We started to play conservatively, hoping that they were gonna lose. But they don’t beat themselves.
“We have a problem matching their style, which is similar to Arizona State. They are both very low unforced errors teams.”
Game three showed little resistance from the Ducks as Washington rolled over them, 15-4.
“Our style has to cause problems,” Ferreira said. “But I don’t think we executed our style well enough to cause them problems. We need better ball control for our setters; we’re just shooting our system in the foot.”
Oregon plays its final Pac-10 matches at Stanford and California this weekend.
“This is not our final match,” Banducci said after the loss. “It’s difficult because it is our last home match, but we’ve got to put this behind us. I want to go out with a win.”