No. 20 Ducks Sweep No. 10 WSU In Impressive Fashion

Sunday, October 9

Eugene, Ore.

1:00 PM

University of Oregon

12-3, 5-1Pac-12

Washington State

15-3, 5-1Pac-12

Washington State

Oregon

Photo by: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com

No. 20 Ducks Sweep No. 10 WSU In Impressive Fashion

10/09/16 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score No. 20 Oregon 3, No. 10 WSU 0

Oregon Hands 10-Ranked Cougars First Pac-12 Loss Of The Season With 25-21, 25-10, 25-14 Sweep

By: Nate Krueger

EUGENE, Ore. – The 20th-ranked Oregon volleyball team got back to its winning ways and handed No. 10 Washington State its first Pac-12 loss of the season with a 25-21, 25-10, 25-14 sweep on Sunday afternoon at Matthew Knight Arena.

How It Happened: The Ducks (12-3, 5-1 Pac-12) outlasted the Cougars (15-3, 5-1 Pac-12) in the opening set before blowing them away in the next two en route to an impressive sweep in the top-20 matchup. The Ducks were paced by nine kills each from Taylor Agost (.409) and Jolie Rasmussen (.438), and Lauren Page had a very impressive match with seven kills while hitting a career-high .700 and tying her career-high with six blocks to lead all players. Lindsey Vander Weide had seven kills, Willow Johnson put down six and Ronika Stone finished with five while hitting .532, and Maggie Scott led all players with 22 assists while digging nine balls. The Ducks hit an impressive .386 as a team, but more impressively held the Cougars to a team mark of just .056. The Ducks out-served the Cougars with four aces to one, and the two teams each finished with eight total blocks.

Set 1: The first set was a back-and-forth battle, with the two teams playing to a 13-13 tie early on. The Ducks began to find their groove from there, scoring back-to-back points to go up two at the first media timeout, and then forcing WSU into taking a timeout a few points later, leading 18-14. The Ducks used an 8-2 run to take a 23-16 lead, but WSU rallied with a 4-1 run to get within four at 24-20 and force an Oregon timeout. The Cougars got a point out of the break, but the next serve went long to give Oregon the opening set win, 25-21. Agost led the Ducks with four kills while Rasmussen added three, and Page and Stone each had a pair of blocks.

Set 2: The Ducks got out to a fast start after winning the first set, jumping out to a 10-4 lead that included a 7-2 run and forced an early WSU timeout. Oregon kept it going out of the break, using a 4-2 run to go up 14-5 and make the Cougars use their second timeout. Despite the Cougars' effort to stop Oregon's momentum, the set belonged to the Ducks as they finished on an 11-5 stretch to win the second set in dominating fashion, 25-10, and go up 2-0 in the match. Vander Weide and Willow Johnson paced the Ducks with three kills each, August Raskie put down a pair of aces and Page had two blocks for the second straight set. The Ducks were a perfect 10-for-10 on sideout opportunities in the second set.

Set 3: Washington State started the third set well, taking an initial 7-4 lead after dropping the first two sets. Oregon found a spark a few points later, ripping off nine straight points to go up 15-9. After the Cougars got a point back on a service error, the Ducks extended their lead to 21-12 with six points in eight rallies. Three straight kills by Johnson, Vander Weide and Agost closed out the set for the Ducks and gave them a sweep over the Cougars. Agost, Rasmussen and Stone each had four kills in the final set, with Stone putting down each of her four attempts. Benson led all players with six digs.

What It Means: After losing its 11-match winning streak on Friday to No. 8 Washington, the Ducks quickly got back on track with a dominating victory over the Cougars. Both at 5-1 now, the Ducks and Cougars are tied at the top of the Pac-12 at 5-1 each. The win over the 10th-ranked team in the country should also help the Ducks' standing in the RPI rankings after entering this weekend at No. 17, while WSU was at No. 9.

Up Next: The Ducks will stay home this week for two more matches at Matthew Knight Arena, hosting No. 18 UCLA on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and No. 22 USC on Friday at 8 p.m. with both matches broadcast on Pac-12 Networks.

Quotes:
Head Coach Jim Moore
On the win…
"We came out attacking. I wish we would have done that Friday night. This was a lot better; we had a lot better focus. This was a better way to approach the game. I hate to say this, but you have to learn sometime. It makes me unhappy that I'm saying that, but you have to learn lessons the hard way most of the time."

On everyone contributing…
"The one thing I want to say is that Sumeet (Gill) deserved to start tonight. She was awesome yesterday in practice. I started Lauren Page because of the way she hits the A1 so well. That turned out to be a good thing. You talk about the willingness to be a great teammate. She just accepted it. Here is a kid, that in a different situation, let's hope that everyone else does what she did. Every time I looked at her she could have been mad that she had a great practice yesterday and deserved to be in there today. But that shows you what kind of kids they are."

On the feeling before the game…
"There was a different feeling before this game. We felt like we were protecting something. We have to learn to be the top team. We have to stop wanting to be the underdog. We have to start accepting the fact that we're good and people expect you to win."

On UCLA and USC…
"They're different. Washington State poses a huge challenge. Their blocks are big. Every silly hit we hit, they blocked. The first ones they blocked up until game two, they were all mistakes, and they blocked every one of them. We had to hit really, really well and they finally got Jolie at the end of game two. She took a good swing and that was a really good block. But every mistake we made they blocked. The other two teams coming in are completely different from Washington State. They're UCLA, they're going to be scrappy, they're going to pass, they're going to serve, they're going to dig balls, they're going to make you beat them. USC is just as physically gifted as they always are."

Taylor Agost, Junior
On the difference in mindset between Friday night and tonight...
"The loss was really tough, we came out really aggressive... we were all over them, we just really wanted this win. The energy was high and the focus was really good and we came out and were successful."

On when was it apparent that the focus was there...
"We had a practice yesterday as well as a team meeting and film and we talked for about two hours and we talked for a long time which I think really helped us. Our practice was also really good, we stayed disciplined, and we came out today and I could tell during warm ups that we were really focused."

On how the team came together after the loss on Friday...
"We are obviously so close, this is the closest team I have ever played on and we are all really good friends and I think that helps with that. So after the game, we were frustrated, but you can't change the results, you have to learn and grow from it, so we came out this game and did the best that we cold."