Ducks Clip Jayhawks in Three Sets

Friday, September 5

Lawrence, Kan.

5:00 PM

University of Oregon

4-1

Kansas

2-2

Oregon

Kansas

Heather Meyers, Gorana Maricic, Rachel Morris, Sonja Newcobe, Neticia Enesi

09/06/08 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: GoDucks.com

LAWRENCE, Kan. ? The No. 13 University of Oregon women's volleyball team swept its second match of the day Friday, and defeated the host Kansas in the first day of the Kansas Invitational, held at the Horejsi Family Athletic Center.

UO (4-1) won by scores of 25-13, 25-21 and 25-17 ? its third sweep of the season ? thanks to balanced offensive and defensive attacks.

The Duck hitters collaborated on impressive team totals in the first and second sets - .448 and .548 ? then cooled off to a .065 mark in the third set. UO's match-end mark of .352 was just off its season best from the morning win over Central Florida (.356).

On the other side of the net, the Duck defense forced Kansas into more errors (13) than kills (8) in the third set and a -.122 hitting mark. KU almost faced a similar deficit in the first set (7 errors / 9 kills / .062), while it mustered a respectable .290 mark in the second set (14 kills / 5 errors) to pull its match average back into the positive side (.058).

The Duck offense featured four players with nine or more kills, led by sophomore Heather Meyers' 10 kills. The Temecula, Calif., native's personal season best .529 hitting mark was second-best on the night behind junior Neticia Enesi's team season best of '08 (.615, 9 kills) - one that improved on her's and senior Kristen Forristall's marks (.462) from the morning sweep of CFU. Forristall and senior Gorana Maricic ended with nine and eight kills and marks of .467 and .263, respectively.

On defense, senior Katie Swoboda and junior Sonja Newcombe came up 16 and 12 digs, respectively, and Forristall and Maricic each had five block assists. Enesi and junior setter Nevena Djordjevic added four blocks a piece, and Djordjevic's 36 assists was her fourth match this year with 36 or more assists (including two that were three-game affairs).

In the first set after an early 2-2 tie, UO fought out to an 8-6 lead. A kill by Maricic next started an 8-2 run that saw UO go up, 16-8, on its way to a 25-13 win. Enesi, Forristall and Meyers each had three kills in the set with Meyers topping the hitting percentage chart (.750), just ahead of Forristall (.600). Djordjevic racked up 10 assists, and Newcombe and Swoboda each had four digs.

In the second set, the lead traded back and forth until an 11-10 Kansas advantage, when UO went on a 5-1 run to go up 15-12 on a Meyers kill. After KU answered with two straight points, UO put together another 7-1 run to lead 22-15. Kansas excited its home crowd with a 6-2 run of its own to force Oregon to need five attempts at set point to pull out the 25-21 decision, eventually clinched by Newcombe's third kill of the set. Overall, Enesi was perfect with four kills on her four attempts, and Forristall also staked four kills on six attempts. Djordjevic racked up 18 assists and the Ducks' lone service ace of the set, and Swoboda ended the period with five digs.

In the third set, UO stormed out to an 8-0 lead on eight straight serves by Newcombe that included an ace, two kills by Forristall, and three pairs of block assists. UO still led 10-1 before KU answered with an 8-3 rally of its own to pull within 13-9 and force a UO timeout. Moments later, Kansas nearly tied matters 14-13, but two straight Jayhawk attack errors helped put UO back up 17-13 en route to the 25-17 win.

For Kansas ( 2-2), Karina Garlington paced the Jayhawks in kills (12), and Allison Mayfield had nine kills and a team-best .304 attack mark. Nicole Tate led the assists column (22); Melissa Manda had eight digs; and no home player had more than two blocks.

Looking ahead, the Ducks return for their third and final match of the tournament against Utah Valley, Saturday morning at 11 a.m. CT / 9 a.m. CT. A live stats link will be available at the www.KUathletics.com website, but the host school won't have an online video feed this tournament.

QUICK QUACKS: Fourth-year head coach Jim Moore raised his overall record to 55-42 with Friday evening's win... Oregon's non-conference record under Moore is 36-3 ...Oregon is now 3-0 vs. Kansas, including last year's sweep in Eugene.

- www.GoDucks.com ?