University of Oregon
California
No. 11 Ducks Drop Pac-10 Opener at No. 8 Cal
09/27/08 | Women's Volleyball
* A boxscore and play-by-play is located in the LINKS box to the right.
BERKELEY, Calif. ? The No. 11 University of Oregon volleyball team (11-2, 0-1) lost its Pacific-10 Conference opener Friday night at No. 8 California (11-1, 1-0).
The Ducks' nine-match win streak came to end as they lost to the returning NCAA final four qualifier by scores of 20-25, 15-25, 15-25.
On Friday, UO had three players with a team-high five kills ? senior Gorana Maricic, junior Sonja Newcombe and sophomore Heather Meyers. Newcombe owned the team high in hitting percentage (.167), and senior Kristen Forristall added five blocks.
In other stat categories, junior setter Nevena Djordjevic came up with 17 assists, Meyers served three aces, and senior Katie Swoboda and Newcombe had 17 and nine digs, respectively.
Cal hit .250 as a team, and was led in kills (11) by Am'ra Solomon (.364) and Hana Cutura (.400), and other category leaders were Mindi Wiley (blocks, 8), Cutura and Tarah Murrey (2 service aces) and Carli Lloyd (33 assists).
In the first set, UO was tied with Cal, 3-3, before the home squad reeled off a 7-0 run to go up 10-3. Several plays later, the Ducks responded with a 6-0 run of its own to draw within, 14-12, courtesy of kills by Newcombe and Forristall, three Meyers service aces and a block by Newcombe and Forristall. However, Cal answered with a 5-1 run to go back up, 19-13, on its way to a 25-20 decision.
In the second set, Cal jumped out to a 4-0 advantage, and UO answered with three straight points on two Enesi kills and an Enesi and Newcombe block. Up 7-5 several points later, Cal had another 5-2 run to go up, 12-7, then another 13-8 run to end the set with a 25-15 edge.
The third set was tight early with the two teams separated by two points or less through 11-11, before Cal posted another six-point spurt to lead, 17-11, then continued to coast away to a 25-15 win.
Looking ahead, the Ducks return to action Saturday night vs. No. 6 Stanford in Palo Alto at 7 p.m. Live stats will be available via the www.GoStanford.com website, and a free online video feed will be available at the http://gostanford.cstv.com/allaccess/ URL address.
- www.GoDucks.com ?
