No. 18 Ducks Cruise Toward Postseason With 3-1 Win Over Cougars

Wednesday, November 25

Pullman, Wash.

7:00 PM

University of Oregon

18-9, 8-9

Washington State

17-12, 5-12

OREGON

WASHINGTON STATE

Photo by: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com

No. 18 Ducks Cruise Toward Postseason With 3-1 Win Over Cougars

11/26/09 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: GoDucks.com

* A boxscore and play-by-play is located in the LINKS box below to the right, and updated career/season statistics are available via the link above.

PULLMAN, Wash. – The No. 18 University of Oregon volleyball team (18-9, 8-9) topped Washington State (17-12, 5-12) for the ninth straight time with its 3-1 win Wednesday night at Bohler Gym.

UO won by a 25-16, 25-20, 20-25, 25-20 count in its penultimate match of the regular season, and featured five players in double digits in digs and three in kills.

Senior outside hitter Sonja Newcombe finished with a team-high 17 kills, hit .211, tied her season high for blocks (5), and completed her 12th double-double of the season and 46th of her career with her 12 digs.

The Lake Arrowhead, Calif., native Newcombe's team-high 20 points also raised her season tally to 467 (and a 4.77 average), and those totals rank fifth and fourth all-time for UO, respectively.

Senior middle blocker Neticia Enesi hit .611 – the 15th time that she's paced UO in the category this season and boasted her fifth +.600 hitting mark of '09 and second in Pac-10 play. The Dalles, Ore., native's nine blocks Wednesday also topped the team's previous season best (7) that she shared with senior Nevena Djordjevic, junior Heather Meyers and sophomore Dana Stephenson, and was only three shy of the ninth-best mark (12) in school history that she already shares with five other players.

Djordjevic finished with her fourth double-double of the season and 22nd of her career, thanks to her 50 assists and 11 digs – with the former mark her ninth +50-assist tally in '09 and 19th career-wise.

Meyers added 18 kills – two shy of her career high (20) that came in a five-set win vs. then-No. 9 Minnesota in September – and she hit .279 Wednesday and posted 13 digs for her seventh double-double of '09 and 11th career-wise.

Freshman libero Kellie Kawasaki led the digs category (17) for the seventh time this season and posted her 12th +10-dig tally of '09, but her first in five matches since a career high 20 in three sets against Arizona State in early November. Freshman Katherine Fischer added 15 digs – only two off her career high in a four-set match vs. Arizona earlier in November.

From the service line, three Ducks – Djordjevic, Fischer and Kawasaki - landed single aces on the evening.

Oregon nearly doubled WSU in the hitting column (.240-.127) – the Ducks' third Pac-10 match this year that an opponent has hit less than .150 with the other two versus Arizona State in Eugene (.083) and in Tempe (.069). UO also held advantages in kills (60-47), assists (58-43), digs (77-71) and blocks (12-7), while WSU sported a 5-3 service aces edge. UO's double-digit blocks figure was its seventh in 17 league matches this season.

For WSU, two players had + 10 kills – Meagan Ganzer (20) and Brittany Tillman (10), and the latter player also led the home team in hitting (.381) and aces (2). Other Cougar stat leaders includes Oceana Bush (28 digs), Cassie Robbins (4 blocks) and Renee Bordelan (42), and the last player added 13 digs for a double-double.

In the first set, UO turned a 10-9 advantage into a 15-10 lead, thanks to two of Meyers' six kills in the set. WSU cut the lead back to three at 18-15, but Enesi's two kills put UO up 21-17, followed by two kills from both Newcombe and Meyers to give Oregon a 25-10 final advantage in a set that also featured five Duck blocks.

After another 10-9 lead in the second set, Oregon went on a 5-0 run to go up 15-9 on two kills by freshman Fischer, two Enesi kills, and a block by Newcombe and Enesi. UO held a +4-point lead the rest of the way as Newcombe ended the set with a 25-20 score, thanks to her eighth and final kill.

WSU got out to a 5-1 lead early in the third set, but Oregon pulled within one at 10-9. However, WSU went on a 5-1 run at 11-10 to go up 16-11, then 21-15, en route to a 25-20 win, while Enesi led the Ducks in kills during the set (4).

In the fourth set, the two teams were tied four times through 7-7. Moments later at 9-8, UO went on a 6-1 run thanks to a block assist by Enesi and Djordjevi, two Meyers kills, and additional kills by Fischer, Enesi and Stephenson. Oregon maintained a three-point lead to 21-18 when two Newcombe kills made it 23-18, and Meyers later ended the match with a final kill for a 25-20 deciding set score.

Looking ahead, UO spends Thanksgiving in Seattle and play at No. 4 Washington (23-4, 13-4) in its season finale, Friday, November 27, at 7 p.m. UW topped Oregon State, 3-0, Wednesday night at home to move into a tie atop the Pac-10 with No. 6 Stanford.

Afterwards, the NCAA volleyball tournament selection announcement will be televised on Sunday, November 29 at noon (3 p.m. Eastern Time) on ESPNews. Oregon will aim for its fourth straight invitation for the first time in school history under head coach Jim Moore, compared with only four trips prior to his arrival in 1984, '86, '87 and '89. Under Moore, UO has enjoyed consecutive NCAA Regional 'Sweet 16' for the first time in 2007 and '08 and a 4-3 in the postseason in his tenure, while it went 1-4 in its five previous tourney matches before his arrival.

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