Five-Point Rally in Fourth Set Lifts No. 10 Florida Over Ducks

Saturday, August 27

Eugene, Ore.

6:00 PM

University of Oregon

0-2

Florida

1-1

Florida

Oregon

Photo by: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com

Five-Point Rally in Fourth Set Lifts No. 10 Florida Over Ducks

08/27/16 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Ducks Can't Force Fifth Set After Heartbreaking Gator Rally

By: Nate Krueger

EUGENE, Ore. – The Oregon volleyball team looked primed to take No. 10 Florida to a fifth set before five straight Gator points sent the Ducks to a heartbreaking 16-25, 25-19, 16-25, 24-26 loss on Saturday night at Matthew Knight Arena in the VERT Challenge.

How It Happened: With the Ducks (0-2) leading 24-21 in the fourth set and carrying a ton of momentum, Florida (1-1) used four kills and a service ace to take the set and the match. Lindsey Vander Weide led the Ducks with her second double-double in as many nights, finishing with 16 kills and 10 digs. Freshman Jolie Rasmussen impressed with 13 kills and three service aces, and Ronika Stone was solid once again with seven kills and five blocks. Sumeet Gill added six kills on 12 attacks to help lead the Ducks' offense.

Set 1: Strong starts from Vander Weide and Gill weren't enough for the Ducks in the opening set, as the Gators got out to an early 7-3 lead and held it throughout. Vander Weide put down five kills on 10 attacks, and Gill had three kills on four attempts. Three different Gators had four kills in the first set to pace tenth-ranked Florida to a 25-16 win.

Set 2: Oregon raced out to a 5-0 lead to start the second set, with Gill, Vander Weide and Ramussen setting the tone. Gill opened the set with a kill, followed by a service ace by Rasmussen, and a block by Gill, a kill for Vander Weide and another Rasmussen ace forced Florida to burn a timeout. The Ducks extended that lead to 14-7, aided by back-to-back kills by Willow Johnson, the first of her collegiate career. The Gators pulled within three at 21-18, but kills by Gill and Vander Weide and a pair of Florida errors gave the Ducks the win to even the match going into the break.

Set 3: After a pair of kills by Rasmussen opened the set, Florida got on a roll to take a 10-6 lead. Another Johnson kill pulled the Ducks within three, but a 10-5 run gave the Gators a 20-12 lead. Oregon rattled off three straight on two more Rasmussen kills and a Ronika Stone ace to get within five at 20-15, but Florida responded with a 5-1 run to take the set.

Set 4: Oregon took a 7-2 lead to start the set, with a kill by Lauren Page and an ace by Stone leading to an early Florida timeout. The Gators then got on a bit of a roll, going on a 13-5 run to take a 15-12 lead and force Oregon to use both of its timeouts. The Ducks responded behind strong play from Stone, who accounted for four of five Oregon points at one point, two kills and two blocks, to give the Ducks a 20-18. A 4-2 Oregon run preceded Florida's five straight points to end the match.

Quotable:
Head Coach Jim Moore
On the fourth set…
"We let it go. I saw them score a lot of points in a row. We made a lot of mistakes right in a row. We can't let that happen."
On the learning experience from playing top-10 teams…
"The only people that expected us to win was us. It's about learning and about making things happen. We just have to take the lessons that we can and go from there."

On Jolie Rasmussen…
"Obviously she's really good. She's going to be special. We didn't get her enough balls. We got her some more because we were screaming about it in the fourth set. She had eight swings in the first three and you just can't give her eight swings."

Jolie Rasmussen – Freshman Outside Hitter
On the fourth set…
"We were just trying to side out which we did really well at the beginning and we were taking swings, but they were playing incredible defense. Sometimes they just gave a little more than we did and that's something we have to work on."

On the experience from this tournament…
"We are young and we just have to go back in the gym and practice more and practice fighting for the last points. It opened our eyes a little bit, like I said we are pretty young. Four of us that are playing are freshmen that have never played at this level. It is good to start off high and now we see what we are up against and we can work to get to that level."

Up Next: The Ducks will look to regroup from two tough losses as they stay at home to host the Oregon Classic next weekend. Oregon will welcome UC Davis, San Diego State and Murray State to Matthew Knight Arena.