No. 16 Ducks Return Home to Host Cal, No. 2 Stanford

EUGENE, Ore. - The 16th-ranked Oregon volleyball team returns home to Matthew Knight Arena this weekend after going 3-1 in a stretch of four straight road matches. Oregon will face California on Friday (7 p.m.) before welcoming No. 2 ranked and defending Pac-12 champion Stanford to Eugene on Sunday (11 a.m.).

At 5-3 in Pac-12 play, the Ducks currently sit in a three-way tie for third in the league with Washington and UCLA, one game back of USC (6-2) and three behind the first-place Cardinal (8-0).

#16 OREGON (12-6, 5-3) vs. CALIFORNIA (10-9, 2-6)
When: Friday, October 19
First Serve: 7:04 p.m. PT
Where: Eugene, Ore.
Venue: Matthew Knight Arena
TV: Pac-12 Network
Radio: KWVA 88.1 FM
Live Stats: oregon.statbroadcast.com
All-Time Series: Cal leads, 54-24 (UO W8)
Last Meeting: UO won, 3-0 (11/3/17, Berkeley)
About Cal: Cal is coming off a big four-set win over No. 23 Washington State and also owns a five-set road win against Utah. The Bears rank towards the middle of the Pac-12 in every statistical category, and boast a balanced attack with four players avering 2.00 kills per set or better. Mima Mirkovic leads the way with 3.07 kills per set, Preslie Anderson ranks second in the league with a .390 hitting percentage and Lauren Forte is No. 2 in the Pac-12 with 1.58 blocks per set.

#16 OREGON (12-6, 5-3) vs. #2 STANFORD (16-1, 8-0)
When: Sunday, October 21
First Serve: 11:02 a.m. PT
Where: Eugene, Ore.
Venue: Matthew Knight Arena
TV: ESPN2
Radio: KWVA 88.1 FM
Live Stats: oregon.statbroadcast.com
All-Time Series: Stanford leads, 64-4 (STAN W12)
Last Meeting: STAN won, 3-0 (11/5/17, Stanford)
About Stanford: One of the clear favorites to win the national title, the Cardinal are 8-0 in Pac-12 play and have won 14 total matches in a row entering the weekend. Stanford leads the Pac-12 in every statistical category except aces and digs, and are led by reigning national player of the year Kathryn Plummer, who leads the Pac-12 with 5.52 points per set. Libero Morgan Hentz is No. 1 in the Pac-12 with 5.14 digs per set, and Tami Alade (1.64) and Holly Campbell (1.30) are first and third, respectively, in blocks per set.

NOTES
Raskie Joins Rare Triple-Double Club
With 41 assists, 11 digs and a career-high 10 kills last Friday at Colorado, SR S August Raskie recorded the first triple-double of her career and the first this season by a Pac-12 player. A Colorado native, Raskie notched just the 17th documented triple-double in UO history, and became the first Duck to complete the feat since 2001 (Julie Gerlach, 9/8/01). Raskie commited no errors on 14 attack attempts to hit a whopping .714, which was also a new career-high. Raskie is one of just 24 players in the nation this season to have a triple-double, and the senior leads the Ducks with nine double-doubles.

Ducks All Over Pac-12, NCAA Leaderboards
More than halfway into the 2018 season, Oregon finds itself littered across the top of many Pac-12 and national team and individual statistic leaderboards:

Team Statistic	Pac-12	NCAA
13.94 Assists/Set	2nd	5th
14.77 Kills/Set	2nd	7th
.257 Hitting Pct.	3rd	31st
16.68 Digs/Set	3rd	45th

Name	Statistic	Pac-12	NCAA
August Raskie	12.12 Assists/Set	2nd	4th
Brooke Nuneviller	4.70 Digs/Set	3rd	76th
Ronika Stone	1.25 Blocks/Set	4th	T49th
Brooke Van Sickle	0.37 Aces/Set	T4th	T96th
Sumeet Gill	.352 Hitting Pct.	7th	T74th
Lindsey Vander Weide	4.01 Points/Set	10th	121st
Lindsey Vander Weide	3.44 Kills/Set	10th	141st

Seven Pac-12 Teams in AVCA Top 25
At No. 16 in the AVCA coaches poll, the Ducks are one of seven teams from the conference in this week's top 25. Defending Pac-12 champion Stanford leads the way at No. 2, and is followed by USC (14), Oregon (16), Washington (19), UCLA (20), Washington State (23) and Arizona (25). Utah, Arizona State and Colorado have all been in the top 25 at some point this season and are all currently receiving top 25 votes. The Ducks have been ranked as high as No. 12 this season.

Ducks Coming Off Split at Mountain Schools
The Ducks finished their four-match road trip with a split last weekend at the mountain schools, beating Colorado in four before falling to Utah in four. SR S August Raskie led the way at Colorado with her first career triple-double, and SR OH Lindsey Vander Weide notched a team-high 17 kills. The Ducks played through some adversity at Utah, playing with just six players for much of the match after JR OH Taylor Borup left in the second set with an injury and multiple players were out for a violation of team rules. The Ducks still managed to win the fourth set, 26-24, and nearly pushed the match to a fifth with a 25-23 loss in the fourth. Vander Weide led the way with 19 kills, and SR MB Sumeet Gill broke out of a recent slump with a career-high 13 kills on .684 hitting.

Borup Wins National, Pac-12 POW Awards
Head coach Matt Ulmer inserted JR OH Taylor Borup into the starting lineup in L.A. (Oct. 5-7), and the move paid off in spades as the junior transfer hit a combined .311 with 23 total kills (3.83 k/s) and 27 digs (4.50 d/s) for the first two double-doubles of her career. Borup's stellar weekend earned her AVCA national player of the week and Pac-12 offensive player of the week honors. Borup recorded a career-high 16 digs and a season-high 13 kills in UO's sweep at UCLA. The Leesburg, Va., native is the seventh player in program history and first since 2012 to earn national player of the week honors. FR L Brooke Nuneviller was also honored as the Pac-12 freshman of the week for the second time this season.

Ducks Show Toughness in L.A. Sweep
Oregon put together its most complete weekend of the season in its recent trip to L.A. (Oct. 5-7), taking six straight sets from then-No. 17 UCLA and then-No. 12 USC to bounce back from a tough weekend prior at home. The Ducks led nearly the entire match against the Bruins for their first-ever sweep of UCLA in L.A., as JR OH Taylor Borup paced Oregon with a season-high 13 kills (.310) and a career-high 16 digs. SR MB/OH Lauren Page also thrived in her return to middle blocker, hitting .417 with seven kills, and JR MB Ronika Stone led the way with seven blocks. Borup shined again in UO's sweep of USC, recording another double-double with 10 kills and 11 digs on .313 hitting, and Stone was stellar with 10 kills on .450 hitting. Page played well again with seven kills at a .500 clip, and FR L Brooke Nuneviller led the team in digs for the second straight match.

Vander Weide Joins 1,000/1,000 Club
With a career-high 28 digs vs. WSU on Sept. 23, SR OH Lindsey Vander Weide surpassed 1,000 for her career and became only the fifth player in Oregon history to have 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs. Vander Weide is also one of just 11 active players in the NCAA to be in the 1,000/1,000 club, and her 1,228 career kills rank 35th in the nation among active players. The Turlock, Calif., native added a season-high 22 kills vs. the Cougars for the first 20-plus kill, 20-plus dig match of her career. Vander Weide also owns 1,439.0 career points, which ranks seventh all-time at Oregon and is just one point shy of sixth, and she has also surpassed 200 total blocks in her career and needs just six aces to get to 100. Vander Weide ranks 10th in the Pac-12 this season with 3.44 kills per set and 4.01 points per set, both of which would be career-highs for a season.

Raskie Embracing Role as Primary Setter
After splitting time in the 6-2 offense the last three years, SR S August Raskie has taken her game to a new level in 2018 as Oregon's lone setter in a 5-1 scheme. Raskie is No. 2 in the Pac-12 and fourth in the nation with 12.12 assists per set, and she has Oregon in the top 10 nationally as a team in both assists per set (5th) and kills per set (7th). Raskie leads the team with nine double-doubles, including last Friday's triple-double, and is averaging a career-best 2.62 digs per set. She has also become an offensive threat at the net with 69 total kills on .318 hitting. Raskie's 2,231 career assists rank eighth in UO history, and she has already surpassed her career-high with 788 assists this season (previous: 616, 2016). Raskie's career-high 66 assists in UO's win over then-No.1 Minnesota on Sept. 7 were the most by a Duck since Lauren Plum in 2012.

Stone Running Wild in 5-1 Offense
Oregon's change to a 5-1 offense has paid immediate dividends for JR MB Ronika Stone, who has thrived with the increased touches. Stone is second among Ducks with 3.95 points per set on .340 hitting, and she has double-digit kills in 13 of 18 matches, including a career-high 19 in UO's upset of then-No. 1 Minnesota on Sept. 8. The San Jose, Calif., native is currently averaging 3.05 kills per set, second-best on the team and a big improvement over last year's 2.14. JR RS Willow Johnson has also played well in the 5-1 offense, averaging 2.79 kills per set on .317 hitting. SR MB Sumeet Gill is seventh in the Pac-12 and first on the Ducks with a .352 hitting percentage, and is coming off a career-high 13 kills on .684 last Sunday at Utah.

Nuneviller Leading Improved Floor Defense
The Ducks entered 2018 with questions at the libero position, but any concerns have been immediately put to rest by the stellar play of FR L Brooke Nuneviller. Nuneviller is the first true freshman to start at libero for Oregon since Amanda Benson in 2013, and the Chandler, Ariz., native has shined with 4.70 digs per set, No. 3 in the Pac-12. Nuneviller was the Pac-12 freshman of the week on Sept. 10 after racking up 28 digs in UO's upset of then-No. 1 Minnesota and won the honor again on Oct. 8 after leading the Ducks defensively in L.A., and she tallied a season-high 35 on Sept. 23 in a five-set win vs. No. 22 Washington State. Nuneviller's 35 digs vs. WSU are tied for seventh-most in UO single-match history, and are the most by a Duck since Benson in 2015. FR L Camryn Tastad has also performed well with 2.40 digs per set, and she did a great job filling in at libero at the mountain schools with 16 and 18 digs. As a team, the Ducks are No. 3 in the Pac-12 with 16.68 digs per set. Oregon racked up 103 total team digs on Sept. 23 vs. WSU, the most for the program since 2014.

Newest "Little Duck" Gives Oregon Volleyball a True Warrior
Oregon officially added a sixth member to its 2018 class on August 7, 2018, signing 8-year-old Eugene-native Danielle Bixby to the roster through the national non-profit Team IMPACT. Bixby has been fighting a rare form of cancer called Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis for the last year, and has become incredibly close with the Ducks over the last few months. "I'm their little Duck, and they're my girls," Danielle said after signing her letter of intent. The Ducks honored Danielle on Sept. 30 vs. ASU with a Stomp Out Cancer match to raise childhood cancer awareness. Danielle was recognized as a starter before the match, took part in most of the in-game promotions and even surpised the team in the locker room postgame with custom-made dolls of each player made by her mom, Shannon.

Up Next
Oregon will go back on the road next weekend to play Arizona State (Oct. 26) and Arizona (Oct. 28).