Ducks Stay Home To Host Oregon Classic

Oregon volleyball continues its lengthy homestand to open the 2016 season this weekend, welcoming Murray State, San Diego State and UC Davis to Matthew Knight Arena for the Oregon Classic. Each team will play each other over the two-day event, with Oregon and Murray State kicking things off on Friday at 11 a.m. in their first-ever meeting against each other. The complete schedule for the Oregon Classic is as follows:

            Friday, Sept. 2
                11 a.m.   OREGON vs. Murray State
                1 p.m.   San Diego State vs. UC Davis
                6 p.m.   UC Davis vs. Murray State
                8 p.m.   OREGON vs. San Diego State
            Saturday, Sept. 3
                3:30 p.m.   San Diego State vs. Murray State
                6 p.m.   OREGON vs. UC Davis

NOTES
LIVE COVERAGE:
All three of the Ducks' matches during the Oregon Classic will be live streamed on GoDucks.com/live. Links for live stats for all six games over the weekend can be found on the GoDucks.com schedule page.

DUCKS GAIN VALUABLE EXPERIENCE AGAINST ELITE COMPETITION:
Oregon came out of last weekend's VERT Challenge with an 0-2 record after dropping a pair of four-set matches to No. 2 Texas and No. 10 Florida, but will benefit from the experience in the long run. "The only people that expected us to win was us," said head coach Jim Moore. "It's about learning and about making things happen. We just have to take the lessons that we can and go from there."

The Ducks fought hard in their opening match against the Longhorns, led by a double-double from Lindsey Vander Weide (12 kills, 14 digs) and an impressive collegiate debut from Ronika Stone (12 kills, .375). Kacey Nady also provided a spark while hitting a very efficient .750 with nine kills, finishing the match tied for eighth in program single-match history for hitting percentage. Taylor Agost added eight kills and three blocks, and Amanda Benson had 13 digs.

Against the tenth-ranked Gators on Saturday, the Ducks looked primed to take Florida to a fifth set before a devastating five-point Gator rally in the fourth set gave Florida a 26-24 win in the set and a 3-1 match win. Vander Weide recorded her second double-double in as many nights, finishing with 16 kills and 10 digs. Freshman Jolie Rasmussen impressed with 13 kills and three service aces, and Stone once again shined with seven kills and a game-high five blocks. Another freshman, Willow Johnson, made her presence known with five kills and a pair of blocks.

ABOUT MURRAY STATE:
Murray State enters the Oregon Classic after going 3-0 in its opening weekend, picking up wins over Fort Wayne, Ball State and Youngstown State. The Racers boast the first AVCA National Player of the Week, with outside hitter Scottie Ingram earning the honor after a big weekend in which she averaged 5.29 kills per set. Ingram hit .274 with 74 kills in the three matches with three double-doubles, including an impressive 30-kill performance against Ball State.

ABOUT SAN DIEGO STATE:
The Aztecs come to Eugene after going 1-2 in their first three matches, opening the season with a 3-0 win over Marist before falling to Michigan State, 1-3, and Denver, 2-3. Freshman outside hitter Ashlynn Dunbar impressed i her collegiate debut for SDSU, averaging 2.00 kills and 1.17 digs per set over the three matches. Despite dropping two of their three matches, SDSU led in every category except service aces throughout the Aztec Invitational.

ABOUT UC DAVIS:
UC Davis went 2-1 in its opening three matches, dropping its season opener to Ole Miss in four sets before picking up victories over Omaha and North Dakota, both in straight sets. Snior Kendall Walbrecht led the Aggies while picking up all-tournament honors, posting 36 kills (3.60 per set) and a .263 average, and redshirt freshman Heather Reed had 53 digs in her first collegiate weekend.

BENSON CHASING UO DIGS RECORDS IN FINAL SEASON:
In her senior season with the Ducks, libero Amanda Benson has a couple of UO career digs records within her sights. Benson is currently second on the all-time digs per set list at 4.52, trailing only Katie Swoboda (5.11). Over the weekend in the VERT Challenge, Benson totaled 28 digs between the two matches to move past Haley Jacob for second on the all-time digs list, giving her 1,589 for her career. Benson needs 599 digs this season to reach Swoboda's all-time mark of 2,198. Elsewhere in the UO career record book, junior setter Maggie Scott enters this season eighth with 8.04 assists per set and ninth with 1,943 assists. Senior Kacey Nady is currently fourth with a career attack percentage of .318.

MOORE CLOSING IN ON 600 CAREER WINS:
In his 12th season with the Ducks and 28th overall, head coach Jim Moore is just 23 victories away from reaching the 600 mark as a head coach. 225 of those wins have come while at the helm at Oregon, where he has boasted a .675 winning percentage over his 11 years. Moore collected a combined 84 wins over four years between Chico State and Northern Michigan before arriving in Eugene, and 84 over four years at Texas, Friday's opponent. Moore started his coaching career at Northern Michigan where he accumulated 123 wins in his first stint with the program before moving to Kansas State, where he won 61 matches over three seasons.

VANDER WEIDE NAMED PRESEASON ALL-PAC-12:
Coming off of a phenomenal freshman season, sophomore outside hitter Lindsey Vander Weide was recognized by the conference's coaches by being selected to the preseason All-Pac-12 team. The Turlock, Calif. native earned All-Pac-12 honors and Pac-12 All-Freshmen Team recognition last season, as well as Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors twice throughout the year. Vander Weide led the Ducks with 410 points in 2015, finished second on the team with 356 kills, 3.21 kills per set, 253 digs and 21 service aces, and third with 59 blocks.

DUCKS PICKED FOURTH lN PRESEASON PAC-12 COACHES POLL:
After a sixth place finish in 2015, the Ducks were picked to finish fourth in the league this season in a poll of the conference's coaches, receiving 95 total points in the poll. Stanford was the consensus at the top of the poll, receiving nine of the 12 first-place votes and 119 points total, while UCLA and Washington each received a first-place vote to round out the top three.

DUCKS LAND NO.2 RECRUITING CLASS IN THE NATION
A year after assembling the nation's fourth-best recruiting class, the Ducks welcome a four-player class in 2016 that was ranked No. 2 in the nation by both prepvolleyball.com and volleyballmag.com. The quartet of hitters Jolie Rasmussen and Willow Johnson, middle blocker Ronika Stone and libero/outside hitter Brooke Van Sickle is the Ducks' top-rated class ever. Stone is the top-rated indiviudal recruit in UO history, slotted at No. 10 on prepvolleyball.com's prestifious "Senior Aces" list. Stone was a first-team Under Armour All-American, while Rasmussen was a second-team All-American and No. 20 on the Senior Aces list. Johnson was an honorable mention All-American and ranked 27th in the 2016 senior class, and Van Sickle came in at No. 88 among the Senior Aces while also earning first-team All-American honors.

DUCKS LOOKING TO EARN SIXTH STRAIGHT NCAA TOURNAMENT BERTH:
Oregon enters 2016 with its sights set on returning to the NCAA Tournament for the sixth straight season. The Ducks faced off with Wisconsin in the first round of the dance last season, and reached the NCAA Regional round in 2014 after serving as a host school in the first two rounds. The Ducks battled with Nebraska in the second round of the tournament in 2013, a year after the program's most successful season in history in 2012 when it reached the national championship game against Texas. The Ducks started the five-year run in the tournament in 2011 in the first round against Colorado State.