University of Oregon
10-5, 3-4Pac-12
Washington
15-3, 5-2Pac-12
Ducks Drop Five-Set Battle in Seattle
10/11/17 | Women's Volleyball
The 15th-ranked Ducks went the distance in a hard-fought battle with No. 14 Washington on Wednesday night but fell in a wild match, 20-25, 25-19, 25-21, 24-26, 15-13
SEATTLE - The 15th-ranked Oregon volleyball team went the distance in a hard-fought battle with No. 14 Washington on Wednesday night but fell in a wild match, 20-25, 25-19, 25-21, 24-26, 15-13, in Alaska Airlines Arena.
How it Happened: Trailing 7-4 early in the first, the Ducks (10-5, 3-4 Pac-12) scored five in a row to spark an 11-4 run and take a 15-11 lead. The Oregon lead was 20-18 when senior Taylor Agost found the floor with back-to-back kills to force a UW timeout. A kill by Ronika Stone and a UW error gave the Ducks set point before Lauren Page ended the first with authority on a slam from the middle.
Aside from an early 4-3 Oregon lead, the Huskies (15-3, 5-2 Pac-12) led the whole way in the second to even the match at intermission. Washington used a 6-1 run to take a 16-9 lead, and then traded points with the Ducks the rest of the set to win, 25-19.
The Ducks broke an 11-11 tie in the third with a kill by Agost and an August Raskie ace, but six straight UW points gave the Huskies a 17-13 lead. Oregon roared back out of a timeout with six straight points and seven out of eight to take a 20-18 advantage, including a pair of aces from Agost, but UW responded with a furious 7-1 run to finish the set and take a 2-1 match lead.
The Ducks led 18-17 in the fourth when they scored four straight to take a 22-17 lead. UW responded with three straight before Oregon earned set point, 24-20, but the Huskies fought off four straight set points to pull even, 24-24. Kills by Agost and Ronika Stone ended the slide for the Ducks and forced a fifth set in Seattle.
Washington started the decisive set well with leads of 4-0 and 8-3. Oregon rallied back to within two, 8-6, with three straight, and then fought to pull even, 12-12. UW earned match point with two straight before the Ducks earned a point back on a crazy sequence, in which Agost ran down ball well out of bounds and Stone ended a marathon rally with a kill, but UW's Marion Hazelwood followed with a kill to finish off the win for the Huskies.
Who Stood Out: Agost enjoyed another great night in her third match since moving to outside hitter, setting a career-high with 19 kills while tying her career-high with 11 digs for her second double-double of the year. Willow Johnson had 11 kills, Lindsey Vander Weide, Stone and Lauren Page each finished with nine, and Sumeet Gill put down eight. Page had a breakout match in the middle, hitting .444 with a season-best eight blocks to lead Oregon to 12.5 total blocks. Setters Maggie Scott and August Raskie each joined Agost with double-doubles, as Scott tied her career-high with 30 assists while adding 10 digs and Raskie dished out 20 assists with a career-high 16 digs. Senior libero Alex Hojnar also set career-highs with 20 digs and five assists.
What it Means: Playing their third straight match with a reshuffled lineup due to injuries, the Ducks fought through adversity all night and played one of their more complete matches of the season against the two-time defending Pac-12 champion Huskies. Oregon looked its most comfortable so far in the new lineup, and Agost is emerging as a player who can take over a match for the Ducks in her new six-rotation role.
Scott Reaches Milestone: With 30 assists tonight, Scott became just the fourth Duck in program history to reach 3,000 assists in a career. Scott moved her career total to 3,0009, and her 7.41 assists per set are currently 10th best in Oregon all-time history. Scott's accomplishment is even more impressive considering she has been playing in a 6-2 system her entire collegiate career.
Quotable: Head Coach Matt Ulmer
On the match...
"Those are the matches where you have the most fun. We want teams to show up and play well, and we want to play our best ball. I thought this was a great match for us to see how we would respond to some of our injuries in a tough venue, and I think we played well. I thought everyone had great moments tonight, so I'm really proud of them. It's a bummer that we had to lose, but someone has to lose and that was just a fun match."
"I just thought our fight and discipline was fantastic. That was probably the most disciplined we played all year, so that's a really great sign for us."
On the wild play when UW had 14-12 match point...
"I think that one play shows us that we're on the right path. I think everyone was on the floor in that set making impossible plays. That's kind of how the match was, great stuff from us but it just didn't go our way. The effort was there and the desire was there, so those are both positives."
Notable: Oregon and Washington finished close in hitting percentage, with Oregon holding the advantage, .257 to .219 … Oregon lost its first match of the year when leading in hitting percentage (10-2) … Agost added to her highly-productive night with five blocks and two aces … Raskie also added two aces, and Stone and Hojnar each had one … Vander Weide finished with 13 digs for her ninth double-digit dig match of the year … The Ducks are now 3-4 this year against ranked opponents and 2-1 in five-set matches.
Up Next: The Ducks will remain on the road to wrap a stretch of four matches in a week on Friday in Pullman against Washington State. Oregon will put its 21-match winning streak against the Cougars on the line at 6 p.m. PT on Pac-12 Networks.
