Rally While Short-Handed Galvanizes Oregon Volleyball

Oregon has a win over the top-ranked team in the country on its resume this season, and a sweep of two ranked teams on the road in Los Angeles during Pac-12 play. None of that may be as impressive as what the Ducks nearly pulled off Sunday at Utah.

Down two sets to none on the road against the Utes, and down to just six players entering the third set due to a myriad of factors, Oregon rallied back and nearly forced a decisive fifth set.

"It just shows how much fight this team has, how talented we are, how deep we are," UO coach Matt Ulmer said. "There was so much pride on the court in those two sets."

The fight the UO volleyball team showed that day has the Ducks re-evaluating what the future could hold when they're not in such dire straits. Oregon returns to action at home this weekend, against California in Matthew Knight Arena on Friday (7 p.m., Pac-12 Network) and then No. 2 Stanford on Sunday (11 a.m., ESPN2).

"It felt like we were reaching a new level," senior setter August Raskie said. "It's something that, now that we know we can get there, we've got to bring every time. If we can play like that during a situation such as that, we need to be able to do that every time."

With some players being held out as redshirts and some serving suspensions, the Ducks went into the Utah match with just seven available players. Then, reigning national player of the week Taylor Borup suffered an injury and couldn't go on.

Oregon was down to just six players. NCAA rules wouldn't allow the Ducks to continue had they lost another, and been unable to put a complete lineup of six on the court.

So, libero Cameryn Tastad shed her alternate color jersey and joined the regular rotation. The lineup included Raskie, well-rounded senior Lindsey Vander Weide and three natural middle blockers – fortunately versatile enough to play outside and survive in the back row – in Sumeet Gill, Lauren Page and Ronika Stone.

That group of six rallied to win the third set, 26-24. The Ducks then hit .412 in the fourth set, and had the Utes on the ropes before dropping the set and the match, 25-23.

"You feel like, no matter what's going on, you always have a chance to win," Ulmer said. "You had your libero in the front row, and three middles playing all the way around – and you still had a chance, on a top-25 team's home court. So what excuse could we possibly have?"

The Ducks won at Colorado last Friday and also played at Utah without regulars Willow Johnson, Brooke Van Sickle and Brooke Nuneviller, due to a violation of team rules that Ulmer said were put in place when he took over the program last fall.

"I think it was important for everybody to understand how serious we are about being great," Ulmer said. "I've never liked our inconsistencies; we can be one of the best teams in the country one day, and then I don't even recognize us the next. And I think a lot of that had to do with how we handle ourselves off the court.

"Until we get after that, and balance out the rest of our lives, we're just going to be up-and-down. And I'm just not interested in that."

Ulmer said the Ducks should have more players on hand this weekend, while noting that "not everybody's back yet." He also wasn't sure Borup could return this weekend from the injury she suffered at Utah.

"I'll probably be pretty cautious with her coming back, and making sure that we have her ready to go come playoff time," he said. "You saw what she could do for us, so it would be nice to have her when we need her the most."

Ulmer said the suspensions were due to players violating "one of the rules in particular" that were established last year.

"You're going to figure out if this is something that's important to you," he said. "I tell the team all the time – and I think everybody actually understood that I meant it – that I'd rather have six people that are willing to give everything for this team, than have 15 who are not sure about it. We had six people that were willing to give everything (at Utah). We lost, but we didn't lose ourselves."

This week's homestand begins against the Golden Bears, who are 10-9 overall and 2-6 in Pac-12 play.

Two days later, the No. 16 Ducks (12-6, 5-3) have a showdown with the No. 2 Cardinal (16-1, 8-0). That nationally televised match will have major Pac-12 title implications – but only if Oregon handles business Friday.

"We need to beat Cal, and then maybe that'll set up a chance for us to get after Stanford," Ulmer said. "But definitely you have to win the first one."

Playing the Golden Bears first will have the added bonus of allowing the Ducks to re-acclimate players who sat out last weekend into the rotation.

"We know that Cal's a big match for us, to get a lineup back out there that gives us a little bit more stability," Ulmer said.