Ducks Fend Off Cougar Rally to Win in Five in Pullman

Sunday, November 6

Pullman, Wash.

11:00 AM

University of Oregon

17-6, 10-4

Washington State

17-9, 7-7

Oregon

Washington State

Photo by: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com

Ducks Fend Off Cougar Rally to Win in Five in Pullman

11/06/16 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score #20 Oregon 3, #23 WSU 2

Oregon Survives WSU to Remain Tied for Pac-12 Lead; Lindsey Vander Weide Leads With 20 Kills

By: Nate Krueger

PULLMAN, Wash – After building a two-set lead, the No. 20 Oregon volleyball team survived a furious Washington State rally to beat the No. 23 Cougars in five sets, 25-16, 25-20, 21-25, 15-25, 15-8, and remain in a tie for first place in the Pac-12 on Sunday afternoon at Bohler Gym

How It Happened: Coming off a dominant straight-set win over No. 8 Washington in Seattle on Friday, Oregon (17-6, 10-4 Pac-12) maintained that attacking mentality to win the first two sets in convincing fashion and take a 2-0 lead at intermission. Washington State (17-9, 7-7 Pac-12) played reenergized in the third and fought off a late Ducks' rally to win the set, and then put together a dominating 25-15 fourth set to send the match to a fifth. With the Cougars carrying all the momentum the Ducks came out and flipped the script in the fifth set to escape Pullman with a win, remain undefeated (7-0) on the road this season and remain tied for the Pac-12 lead.

Lindsey Vander Weide fueled the Oregon attack, putting down 20 kills on .311 hitting for her third 20-kill match of the year. Taylor Agost (12 kills, .345) and Ronika Stone (11 kills, .333) also helped carry the Oregon offense and freshman Brooke Van Sickle had a career-match with seven kills and 11 digs filling in for Jolie Rasmussen, who left with an injury midway through the first set. Fellow freshman Willow Johnson added eight kills, Maggie Scott and August Raskie combined for 56 assists and Amanda Benson led all players with 17 digs. The Ducks hit .250 as a team.

Set 1: After Washington State took an initial 6-5 lead, Oregon found its groove and rattled four straight points to go up 9-6. The Cougars ended the run with a point, but the Ducks responded right back with a 7-2 stretch to extend their lead to 16-9. The Cougars started to mount a rally with three straight points, but the Ducks came back with four in a row before WSU responded with another 3-0 run to get within 20-15. The Ducks would end the set strong, scoring four points in the last five rallies to go up 1-0 with a 25-16 win. Vander Weide led the Ducks with five kills while hitting .300 and Agost and Rasmussen each had three with Rasmussen adding an ace.

Set 2: Looking to carry over the momentum from their set one win, the Ducks jumped out to an 11-7 lead aided by a 5-0 run. Oregon would extend its lead to 15-9 before WSU found a rhythm, going on a 5-2 stretch to get within17-14 and force an Oregon timeout. After the Cougars cut the Oregon lead to two at 20-18, the Ducks closed the set out strong with a 5-2 run to win, 25-20, and take a two-set lead into intermission. Vander Weide was nearly unstoppable in the second set, recording seven kills on 11 swings. Stone was also very impressive with five kills on seven attempts.

Set 3: Trailing by two sets on its home floor, Washington State came out of the intermission with a new energy to jump all over the Ducks for a 16-8 lead. Trailing 21-15 later on, the Ducks began to mount a rally with a 6-1 run to pull within a point, 22-21. The Cougars were able to snuff out the comeback and avoid a sweep, though, winning the last three points for a 25-21 victory. It was a big set for Van Sickle in her first Pac-12 action as an outside hitter, as the freshman put down six kills on 14 swings to lead the Ducks Agost added four kills and Benson dug six balls.

Set 4: Coming off the win in the third set, the Cougars kept their foot on the gas en route to a dominating set four win, 25-15. WSU scored the first five points of the set and led by as much as 16-4. The Ducks got as close as eight points on two different occasions, but were unable to mount a real threat as WSU ran away with it to force a fifth set. Vander Weide led the Ducks with four kills, and Marine Hall-Poirier came on to record an ace off the bench. WSU's Kyra Holt led the way with six kills on eight swings without an error.

Set 5: Trying to avoid a devastating loss after taking an initial two-set lead, the Ducks came out in the fifth with a purpose to attack. Oregon scored the first three points of the set to build some momentum, with Van Sickle putting down an ace, and extended that lead to 8-3 when the team's switched sides. Having already forced WSU into both of its timeouts, the Ducks went up 11-4 behind a kill and an ace by Vander Weide. The two teams traded points the rest of the set, but Oregon's initial lead was enough to give it a 15-8 win and escape Pullman with a five-set victory. Vander Weide once again led the Dcucks with four kills, Agost had two and Benson dug five balls in the shortened set.

Road Warriors: The Ducks move to a perfect 7-0 on the road this season with their third road win against an AVCA top-25 team, and 6-0 on the road in conference play. Oregon has hit .277 away from Matthew Knight Arena while holding opponents to a mark of just .177. Agost has been a beast on the road with a .372 hitting percentage, and Stone is right behind at .367. Vander Weide has also been very effective with a team-best 3.43 kills per set and a .309 hitting percentage.

What It Means: The Ducks did what they needed to do to keep pace at the top of the Pac-12 standings. Oregon is now in a three-way tie at 10-4 with UCLA and Stanford, and Washington will have a chance to join that cluster today when they face Oregon State. With two road conference wins against top-25 teams the Ducks should receive a significant boost both in the AVCA poll and the NCAA RPI rankings, where they entered the week at No. 26. The top 16 teams in the RPI rankings at the end of the regular season automatically host to open the NCAA tournament.

Notable: With 22 digs Benson moved her career total to 2,005, joining Katie Swoboda (2005-08) as only the second player in UO history to reach the 2,000 dig mark ... With six matches still to play in the regular season, Oregon has already matched its Pac-12 win total from last season with 10 and has exceeded its overall win total from 2015 (16) at 17-6 overall ... The Ducks improved to 53-32-1 all-time against the Cougars and have now won the last 21 matches in the series.

Up Next: Chasing the Pac-12 title, the Ducks return home for their final home stand of the regular season at MKA. Oregon will host Utah on Wednesday at 7 p.m. on Pac-12 Networks before welcoming Colorado on Senior Night on Thursday at 7 p.m. The match against the Buffaloes will be streamed live on Twitter (@OregonVB) through Pac-12 Plus.