Ducks Fall to No. 2 Texas in Season Opener

Friday, August 26

Eugene, Ore.

7:00 PM

University of Oregon

0-1

Texas

1-0

Texas

Oregon

Photo by: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com

08/26/16 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score UO-Texas Box

Oregon Hangs Tough But Drops First Match, 3-1, in VERT Challenge

By: Nate Krueger

EUGENE, Ore. - The Oregon volleyball team played tough in its season opener but fell to No. 2 Texas, 17-25, 19-25, 25-19, 19-25, on Friday night at Matthew Knight Arena in the VERT Challenge.

How It Happened: The Ducks (0-1) hung with the second-ranked Longhorns (1-0) through most of the first set, trailing just 18-15 before Texas went on a 7-2 run to put the opening game away. Freshman Ronika Stone came out swinging in her first collegiate match, accounting for the Ducks' first three points with two kills and a block sandwiched inbetween. Stone recorded four of her 12 kills in the opening set.

Oregon got a lift in the second set from senior Kacey Nady, who came on to put down three kills on four attacks. Freshman Brooke Van Sickle also provided some energy off the bench with her first two collegiate kills, but Texas' Ebony Nwanebu was too much for the Ducks as she put down six kills to give her 12 through the first two sets and put Texas up 2-0 in the match.

Following the intermission, the Ducks came out with new energy and jumped on the Longhorns for a 25-19 win to send the match to a fourth set. Holding an 18-15 lead late in the third, the Ducks rattled off a 7-2 run of their own to put it away, with contributions coming from throughout the court. Nady was perfect on three attack attempts in the the third set, while Lindsey Vander Weide produced four kills and four digs. Setter Maggie Scott also added a pair of aces and a kill, sneaking a ball over the net to give the Ducks set-point before Stone finished off the set with a kill.

The Longhorns were simply too much for Oregon in the final set, racing out to a 15-6 lead to open the set and forcing the Ducks to burn their two timeouts early on. Oregon started to battle back, pulling within 20-15, but Texas finished the match off on a 5-2 run to open its season with a win.

Efficient Nady: Opening her senior season, Nady put together an incredibly efficient night, converting on 9-of-12 attack attempts for a hitting percentage of .750. Nady's mark is tied for eighth on the Oregon single-match record list, and is a new career-high for her when making 10 or more attempts.

Box Score Notes: Senior libero Amanda Benson had 13 digs, moving her into second on the all-time list with 1,584 for her career. Stone finished her collegiate debut tied for the team-lead with 12 kills (.375), while also adding three blocks. Vander Weide matched Stone with 12 kills, finishing with a double-double as she also dug 14 balls and had two service aces. Scott had 37 assists while sophomore setter August Raskie added seven, and Taylor Agost had eight kills and three blocks. Nwanebu finished with a game-high 20 kills (.348) to lead the Longhorns.

Quotable:
Head Coach Jim Moore
On the match...
" We were so wound up at the start of the match and I thought it would go away once we started playing, but it just didn't go away. It took awhile in the third set. We had to fight so hard in such an emotional environment to get back in and then when you win the set, you just have to prevent having that let down. It's just a lot of emotion."

Up Next: The Ducks will return at 6 p.m. tomorrow night against No. 10 Florida in the final match of the VERT Challenge. The Gators are coming off a loss as well after falling to No. 1 Nebraska, 3-1, earlier in the day. Texas and Nebraska will face off in a 1-2 matchup and a rematch of the 2015 national championship game at 3:30 p.m.