Sloppy Play Costs Ducks vs. ASU

Sunday, September 30

Eugene, OR

1:00 PM

University of Oregon

9-5, 2-2Pac-12

Arizona State

12-4, 3-1Pac-12

Arizona State

Oregon

Photo by: Samuel Marshall

09/30/18 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box: Arizona State 3, #12 Oregon 0

By: Nate Krueger

EUGENE, Ore. – The 12th-ranked Oregon volleyball team struggled to get things going on Sunday afternoon in a 25-23, 25-22, 25-22 loss to Arizona State in Matthew Knight Arena.

Despite the loss, the Ducks (9-5, 2-2 Pac-12) put a smile on the face of 8-year-old Danielle Bixby throughout the day in Oregon's Stomp Out Cancer match. Bixby, who has been fighting cancer for the last year and joined the Ducks in August through Team IMPACT, completed her final round of chemotherapy on Friday before taking center stage for her big day on Sunday.

"We love Danielle, we love her family, we love everything she's doing and we want to support them the very best we can," said head coach Matt Ulmer. "Danielle and her family are fantastic and we let them down today, so that's very frustrating. But she doesn't know that; she gets hugs and kisses from the whole team and that's what it's about.

"We need to be better and we need to be a better example for her. She was much more sick than we were today, and she was tough and got here and she was having a great time today."

Danielle ASU

How it Happened: Arizona State (12-4, 3-1 Pac-12) broke an 8-8 tie in the first set with a 5-1 run, but the Ducks answered right back with four in a row to pull even, 13-13. After ASU moved ahead 18-14, Oregon scored five straight and seven out of eight to take a 21-19 lead, but the Sun Devils responded again with four out of five to regain the lead. Willow Johnson made it 23-23 with her fifth kill of the frame, but a kill by ASU's Ivana Jeremic and an Oregon net fault gave the Sun Devils a 25-23 win.

The Ducks struggled to get going early in the second, falling behind 17-12 while using both of their timeouts. Trailing 20-15, Stone got things going for the Ducks with a kill and an ace to spark a 5-1 run that got Oregon within a point, 21-20, but ASU came back with three straight to earn set-point. The Ducks scored two to get within 24-22 and force an ASU timeout, but a UO attack error ended the comeback attempt and sent Oregon into intermission down 2-0.

Oregon had its best start of the day in the third game, jumping out to an 11-6 lead. The Ducks played to a 19-17 lead before Arizona State put together a 6-0 run, including an overturned challenge call, to move ahead 23-19. An ASU attack error and a kill by Stone got Oregon back within two, but the Ducks were unable to keep the match alive as ASU took the set and swept the match.

Who Stood Out: Stone led the Ducks with 13 kills on .300 hitting, and Vander Weide had 11 kills and 11 digs for her seventh double-double. Johnson hit .353 with nine kills and Taylor Borup had six, and August Raskie also notched her seventh double-double with 37 assists and a team-best 13 digs.

Quotable: Head Coach Matt Ulmer
On the match…
"It was rough. Pretty much everything was rough. I thought we were out of control emotionally, all of a sudden we forgot our jobs, what we were supposed to do, we got really sloppy, so it was very disappointing."

Notable: Vander Weide and Raskie remain tied for the team double-double lead … ASU snapped a six-match losing streak to the Ducks … Freshman libero Brooke Nuneviller had 10 digs, giving her double-digit digs in eight straight matches … Jeremic hit .273 with 16 kills for ASU to lead all players ... Senior Lauren Page, who has played exclusively on the outside this season, came in at middle blocker midway through the match.

Up Next: Oregon will head to Los Angeles next weekend for its first Pac-12 road trip of the year. The Ducks will face No. 18 UCLA on Friday (7 p.m. PT, Pac-12 Network) before playing No. 13 USC at 1 p.m. on Sunday.