University of Oregon
14-3, 3-2
Oregon State
12-6, 1-4
No. 7 Ducks Tame No. 24 Beavers in Three Sets
10/12/08 | Women's Volleyball
* Match stats are available in the LINKS box to the right, updated statistics are available in the link above, and a longer post-game recap will be posted shortly.
EUGENE - The No. 7 University of Oregon volleyball team claimed the
first edition of the 2008 Civil War Sponsored by Your Northwest Dodge
Dealers, thanks to a 3-0 win vs. No. 24 Oregon State Sunday afternoon at McArthur Court.
UO (14-3, 3-2) won its fifth straight match vs. the Beavers (12-6, 1-4) by a 25-20, 25-23 and 25-14 count in front of a West Coast Fox Sports TV audience and a season-high home crowd of 2,159.
As a team, Oregon hit .380 for the match - its ninth +.300 mark of the year - compared to a .189 mark for the visitors - the 13th Duck foe to hit .200 or below in a match in the same span.
Returning All-American and UO senior Gorana Maricic tallied 20 kills, while the balanced offensive attack also featured +7 kills from juniors Sonja Newcombe (10, .400) and Neticia Enesi (7, .545) and sophomore Heather Meyers (9, .333). Junior setter Nevena Djordjevic had a three-set season high 40 assists - her fourth +40 total this season with the others coming in four- and five-set affairs.
“OSU deserved credit in that they played with a lot of emotion," Sonja Newcombe said. "They were blocking well and especially in the first two sets when we were a little bit tense, but we started to relax pretty quickly. We served very well, especially Amanda Westrick who did an outstanding job. I thought that our passing was good so that helped a lot. Our distribution and blocking were also assets. All that combined helped us to have three good sets.”
Maricic's kills total was the second-highest of the season behind her 22 in the four-set win vs. then-No. 5 UCLA last weekend. Not surprisingly, her hitting mark (.389) stood as the third-highest for the team in '08 (with a minimum of 12 kills) behind Neticia Enesi's mark vs. UNLV (.632, 13 kills) and Heather Meyers' average vs. New Mexico State (.417, 12 kills). The Subotica, Serbia native Maricic also had 21.5 points Sunday - her fourth +20-point effort this season that also moved her up the UO all-time UO career point list into fourth place, now giving her 905.5 points in her abbreviated 1 1/2-year Duck career.
Maricic also shared the team lead in blocks (3) with Enesi.
"I give a lot of credit to Nev (Nevena Djordjevic)," Maricic said. "She gave us a lot of chances to convert against only one blocker. Once we started to get in our groove it was a lot of fun today. In a match like the Civil War where there's added pressure, and we're a little nervous, our chemistry is really important, and allowed us to come together and be able to refocus quickly."
Senior libero Katie Libero again paced UO in digs (20, 6.67 d/s) and was almost two digs per set higher than her season average per set (5.04). Sunday's total was her highest in three-set matches in '08 and her fourth +20 total this year. The Duck career record holder continues to rank fifth all-time in Pac-10 history (1,876) and is inching closer to the fourth-best mark (2,038) held by former Washington player Candace Lee (2,038, 2002-05).
“Every match is exciting this time of year, and we know that every Pac-10 opponent is tough," Katie Swoboda said. "They (Oregon State) are playing well, so we knew they were going to come out with a lot of fire. We had to be focused. It's great that two Oregon teams are ranked. It hasn't happened in a while so it's exciting. There was definitely a little bit of nerves at the beginning, but in the second set I think we settled down.”
UO added five service aces, and were led in the category by Meyers and Westrick who each had two.
The Beavers were led in kills by Rachel Rourke (12, .250) and Jill Sawatzky (10, .200), and Lauren Rinderknect led the black and orange hitters in attack percentage (.364, 5 kills). Libero Ashley Wvans had 16 kills and Lexie Rathgeber led the team in blocks, while setter Camilla Ah-Hoy had 26 assists.
In the first set, UO open the match on a 7-3 run before OSU came back to go ahead 10-9. The two teams battled back and forth with OSU's last lead at 16-15, before UO ended the set on a 9-5 run that featured three kills by Maricic and two more from Newcombe.
After a 4-4 tie in the second set, OSU built up a 11-6 lead before UO re-tied matters at 12-12. The two teams stayed within a point of each other the rest of the way with UO's final points in the exciting 25-23 decision via kills by Newcombe, Meyers and Maricic.
In the third set, the two teams were tied 5-5 when UO went on a 9-1 run that included a pair of kills by both Maricic and Newcombe and a service ace by Katie Swoboda to go up 14-6. OSU closed within 15-11 and 17-12 before the Ducks ended the match on an 8-2 run that included two more kills by Maricic and another by Newcombe.
“I thought they (Oregon State) played really well," Oregon head coach Jim Moore said. "They blocked well, and served tough. It took us 19 kills to win the second game. That's tough. One of our things going in was to go after the middle, but they were double and triple teaming us so we just turned G (Gorana Maricic) and Sonja (Newcombe) loose. We told them to set G the whole time, because that's what they were giving us. That's the advantage of having a very balanced attack. You can't leave us alone in the middle, because they'll put the ball on the floor, so we went outside. There was a great atmosphere today. At the start of the match I thought it was the best (Mac Court) atmosphere since I've been here. (With our ranking) There was some extra anxiety at the beginning from being in this position. We have to learn how to deal with it, but I think we did OK. It's easy being the underdog, because then you can come out and surprise people. We're not surprising anyone anymore.”
Looking ahead, UO plays another pair of Northwest rival next week, facing No. 10 Washington in Seattle, next Friday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. and Washington State in Pullman, Wash., at 1 p.m.
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