As No. 15 USC and No. 7 UCLA arrive in Eugene, this weekend will be important to the women’s volleyball team for numerous reasons. Obviously, the No. 18 Ducks could use a couple of wins after being swept in the Bay Area last weekend. Adding more significance to the two matches is that they will be the last two at home for the seniors.
“It’s weird, I can’t believe it’s here already,” senior outside hitter Sonja Newcombe said. “I feel like it’s gone really fast. I’m really excited to play at home, I think it’s going to be a good weekend for us.”
Saturday’s match against UCLA will double as Senior Night, and has even been pushed back an hour to 8:00 in order to accommodate the football game. The Ducks want as many people to come to the game as possible, particularly family members.
“I’m really excited for my family,” Newcombe said. “My dad hasn’t been to a home game in a really long time, so I’m excited for him to be here.”
Though their excitement is certainly understandable, the Ducks will have to be locked in to score defeats against these two difficult teams. UCLA is third in the Pacific-10 Conference and has won seven of its last eight matches, including a 3-2 victory over Oregon on Oct. 23. USC, meanwhile, stands just behind the Ducks in seventh place. The Trojans swept Oregon 3-0 when the two teams last played on Oct. 24.
“We have to be more consistent,” head coach Jim Moore said. “Every point has to be crucial.”
Though the Ducks’ last matchup with USC may have looked like a blowout, it was much closer than it seemed. Oregon never lost a set by more than two points, and the Trojans needed 30 points to win the deciding third game. Newcombe had 21 kills with a .442 hitting percentage, and senior middle blocker Neticia Enesi added nine kills with a .467 hitting percentage. Despite her play in that match, Enesi cautions that a repeat is no guarantee.
“There’s always different things that come to the table when teams come back around,” Enesi said. “They know you a little bit more, so you always have to think about that.
The Ducks fell just short against the Bruins on Oct. 23, rebounding from an 0-2 deficit to tie the match at two but ultimately losing 3-2. Newcombe had 22 kills and 23 digs, while outside hitters Heather Meyers and Katherine Fischer each added 15 kills. It was, in Moore’s eyes, a match the Ducks could have won if their focus had been better.
“We just need to do a better job of making those plays at crunch time,” Moore said. “And early, not just at crunch time. We need to make every play.”
The team understands this, and knows that it cannot let matches get away.
“We need to stay focused and finish off the games,” freshman libero Haley Jacob said. “(We need to) just think about the next point that’s coming instead of boiling on what happened.”
Another key for the Ducks will be their play on the defensive side of the ball. Blocking and digging were problematic last weekend against Stanford and California, and the team knows this will have to change.
“(I) just think that’s one of the biggest things, just being able to dig every ball that’s on our side,” Enesi said. “We can get the offense done, but we just have to make sure we get the defense.”
Newcombe agrees, and knows that if the team’s defense does not kick it up a notch, the weekend could be one to forget.
“We know the California schools play good defense,” Newcombe said. “We need to have good defense against them as well.”
If all goes according to plan over the weekend, the Ducks will still be in a very good position to make some noise coming down the stretch. In other words, they are still very much in control of their own destiny.
“We still have the opportunity to do everything we wanted to accomplish,” Newcombe said. “We still have the ability to make it as far as we want to… we just have to play with a passion and have some fun.”
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