It was a top-11 matchup for college volleyball when the No. 8 Oregon Ducks traveled to Los Angeles, to play No. 11 UCLA Bruins Friday night. The Bruins came away with the 3-1 victory.
The loss snapped a seven-match win streak for the Ducks, dropping their record to 8-2 and 1-1 in the Pac-12.
The Ducks fought hard with their backs against the wall in the match-deciding fourth set, but came up short with a 25-21 set loss. Until UCLA took a 20-16 lead with three straight points, neither team gained an advantage of more than two points in the set.
Despite the match loss, the Ducks opened with a 25-19 victory in set one boosted by a 5-0 start to the set. The Ducks closed out the set scoring 5-of-6 points to put away the Bruins.
Lindsey Vander Weide led the team with 15 kills and Willow Johnson added 11 kills, but committed a team high six errors. The Ducks hit .240 and the Bruins hit .308 in the match. Maggie Scott and August Raskie led with 22 assists each.
In the second set, Oregon again raced out to an early five-point lead, 6-1, but this time UCLA bounced back to tie the set at 11. UCLA closed the set on an 8-2 run and won the set 25-18.
Building on its momentum from the second set, UCLA opened set three on a 10-3 run. They had two separate scoring bursts of five straight, and four straight on the way to a 25-19 set win to take a commanding two sets to one lead in the match.
Next up for the Ducks is a road matchup against the Colorado Buffaloes on September 29 at 5 p.m.
Follow Zak Laster on Twitter: @zlast3445