It’s official: The No. 18 Oregon volleyball team is slumping.
The Ducks were swept by No. 3 Cal and No. 4 Stanford over the weekend, dropping their record to 16-7 overall and 4-7 in Pacific-10 conference play. That comes a week after Oregon lost to both UCLA and USC.
Oregon has lost 10 straight sets, dating back to the fourth set in a 3-2 loss to USC two Fridays ago.
But throughout that stretch, the Ducks have played well at times. Oregon coach Jim Moore was relatively pleased with his team’s effort in a 25-17, 25-16, 25-22 loss to the Cardinal on Friday.
“I think we played okay, (Stanford) was just great,” Moore said, adding, “If we can do this back to back nights I’ll be real happy.”
Moore was particularly pleased with the Ducks’ strong defensive showing. Oregon worked hard to contain Stanford’s offense, which ranked first in the Pac-10 in hitting percentage and kills entering weekend play.
“I thought we actually did a pretty decent job against them defensively,” Moore said. “They only hit .242 and we did pretty good.”
But unfortunately for Oregon, Stanford’s defense played even better. The Ducks struggled to find an offensive rhythm all night and hit only .078.
Moore thought Stanford’s early success blocking was a reason for Oregon’s offensive struggles.
“(Stanford’s block) is huge and they blocked some balls,” Moore said. “The problem was they had five blocks in game one, then you start to panic a little bit and that’s what we can’t do.”
Despite the loss, players defended Oregon’s play by adding that the team performed with heart.
“That’s what makes it so frustrating when you give it your all and you still can’t beat them,” senior outside hitter Heather Meyers said. “But that’s Stanford for you. You can have your greatest game against them and they can still beat you.”
Facing Cal Saturday, Oregon clearly didn’t have its greatest game. In a 25-22, 25-17, 26-24 loss, Oregon came out flat, misfiring on several easy balls and committing four service errors in the first set.
“The game plan was to come out fighting we didn’t do that right off the bat,” Oregon sophomore outside hitter Katherine Fischer said.
After that rough stretch, Oregon rebounded. The Ducks actually out-hit the Bears .303 to .258 in the first set, but the mistakes proved too significant to overcome.
“You look at the first game statistically and you take away those things and we win and we should have,” Moore said. “That’s a focus issue.”
Cal went on to hit .349 for the match, .34 points higher than its season average. And in fairness, even a focused Oregon team would have had trouble with the Bears, who beat No. 4 Stanford in Palo Alto last weekend.
“They’re really good,” Moore said of Cal.
California’s combination of setter Carli Lloyd and outside hitter Tarah Murrey were lethal — Lloyd had 39 assists and five kills, while Murrey tallied 19 kills and a .302 hitting percentage.
“They’re both great players,” Moore said.
Still, after the match, Oregon wondered why they didn’t play with their normal level of intensity and focus. Fischer hypothesized a small crowd of only 845 could have played a role.
“There was definitely a small crowd because of football, so that was a little tougher, but we need to bring our own energy we can’t rely on any crowds,” Fischer said.
The Ducks head south next weekend to play Arizona and Arizona State. Moore hopes to see more fight out of his team in those contests.
“We’re going to have to decide we’re going to battle,” Moore said. “We’re going to have to decide we want to be focused right from the beginning and go.”
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