Raskie Steps Into Spotlight
08/27/18 | Women's Volleyball, @GoDucksMoseley
Senior August Raskie is now Oregon's full-time setter after sharing the job the last three years, and leads the Ducks into Tuesday's home opener against Portland State.
Her coach compares her to a unicorn. A teammate said August Raskie is "like a wizard out there."
Out of this world analogies, to be sure. But how else to describe a player of such varied talents?
A senior on the Oregon volleyball team, Raskie is explosively athletic, with enough vertical leap to dunk a basketball. Her talents as a hitter have her in the mix to play on the right side for the Ducks, who play their home opener against Portland State in Matthew Knight Arena on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
But that's only if UO coach Matt Ulmer can afford to move her from her most natural position, setter, where Raskie was an all-tournament selection playing this summer for the U.S. Collegiate National Team, which won the European Global Challenge in Croatia. In Oregon's opening weekend, against top-five opponents Texas and Nebraska, Raskie had 90 assists across seven sets, was third-best on the team with 19 digs and added five kills with two block assists.
"She's really unique," said Ulmer, who also can make analogies rooted in reality, and compared Raskie with a former player from his beloved Los Angeles Lakers. "… I think of 'Showtime,' with Magic (Johnson). She just plays the position differently than everyone else."
For the last three years, Raskie shared setter duties for the Ducks, with Maggie Scott, frequently in a 6-2 rotation. With Scott having graduated, Raskie and her teammates spent this offseason preparing to play in a traditional 5-1 system, with Raskie setting – when she wasn't brushing up on her skills as a hitter, and in the back row.
"I'm excited to fill whatever position is needed," said Raskie, a native of Colorado Springs, Colo.
Raskie's skill set is as diverse as her interests off the court, which include visual arts and a talented eye for photography. She's made the most of her collegiate experience, travelling to Nicaragua in 2017 with Oregon's annual Courts for Kids trip, and then to Croatia, Slovenia and Italy this past summer with the collegiate national team.
Now, she embarks on her senior season with the Ducks. For both the team as a whole and Raskie as an individual, she sky is the limit on the potential for a big 2018 campaign.
"Now that we're running a 5-1, her being able to attack in the front row, her being left-handed, is definitely an advantage," said senior Ronika Stone, who made the "wizard" comparison. "It opens up our hitters, and gives us more options."
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Coming off what he called "a perfect summer" of development with the collegiate national team, Ulmer said Raskie's "confidence is sky-high." Thus it matches that impressive vertical jump, allowing her to touch as high as 10 feet, 5 inches – higher than a basketball rim, let alone a volleyball net.
"She's three feet above the net, with a great left arm," Ulmer said. "So she's very offensive. But then she really moves the ball around well. I think she's really understanding how she can be a threat, and how that can change the game."
In 80 career matches with the Ducks prior to last weekend, Raskie averaged 5.17 assists per set. Those numbers were compiled in tandem with Scott, who "taught me what it means to be an Oregon setter," Raskie said. "To come in, day in and day out, and earn it, and how to communicate efficiently with teammates."
Those communication skills will be of the utmost importance as the Ducks develop over the early part of this season. Ravaged by injuries, Oregon fielded a bare-bones lineup with as few as eight healthy players late last fall; with nearly everyone healthy and a big recruiting class now on hand, the 2018 Ducks feature options aplenty.
That's a luxury for the program. But it creates a tough juggling act for coaches needing to portion out playing time, and setters needing to operate with such a big, diverse set of offensive options. Namely, Raskie, and her freshman backup, Kylie Robinson, a candidate to redshirt assuming Raskie continues to thrive.
Fortunately for Raskie, she can fall back on her experience this summer with the national team. That required her to quickly learn the traits of a full slate of new teammates, and get them operating at such a high level that they won an international tournament title.
"It was a great chance to get together with people from all across the county, that I've never played with before, and work to build an offense that would, as we did, end up winning the Global Challenge," Raskie said. "I learned so much about how to adapt faster, and how to be a good teammate in tough situations."
Raskie's adaptability is good news for the Ducks, who will count on her to run the offense as the fall schedule continues. And it's bad news for opponents, who will have to figure out to defend against an Oregon senior so multiple in her skills, coaches and teammates resort to the mystical for comparisons.
