Young Talent Will Be On Display As Volleyball Opens Play Friday
08/28/19 | Women's Volleyball, @GoDucksMoseley
The Oregon volleyball team features three returning all-Americans plus talented newcomers, and will host UC Irvine in its season opener Friday.
When it comes to experience levels for the Oregon volleyball team entering 2019, it's all or nothing.
Opening serve for the Ducks' fall season will be Friday, when the No. 11 UO volleyball team hosts UC Irvine in Matthew Knight Arena. Looking to build on an Elite Eight run last season, Oregon fields a roster led by three veterans who earned all-America honors last season, led by senior middle blocker Ronika Stone.
Stone earned first-team preseason all-Pac-12 honors along with senior hitter Willow Johnson and sophomore Brooke Nuneviller. That Ducks also return senior Taylor Borup, though she's still recovering from offseason ankle surgery. And beyond that?
"Four really good non-freshmen – and everybody else, they haven't played a point in a full match yet," UO coach Matt Ulmer said. "So it's been really interesting."
Thanks in part to an offseason exhibition tour in Europe, the Ducks had the chance to build chemistry over the summer. Still, Friday will be the first counting collegiate match for highly regarded redshirt freshmen Karson Bacon, Kylie Robinson and Abby Hansen, and for a true freshmen class that includes top-rated libero Georgia Murphy, setter Elise Ferreira and Eugene native Taylor Williams.
"We have three upperclassmen, three people older than me on the team, which is crazy," said Nuneviller, who will move from libero to outside hitter for this season. "We have some really talented freshmen, and I just think they have to understand that you can't be afraid to take a role as a freshman, because we're all on one team."
Despite their youth in the absence of 2018 seniors including Lindsey Vander Weide, Lauren Page and August Raskie, the Ducks aren't tempering their goals. They wanted to break through and reach the second round of last year's NCAA Tournament, and did so – going one better by upsetting No. 1 Minnesota, in Minneapolis, before losing in the Elite Eight to Nebraska.
Having tasted that level of success, the Ducks want another bite. Perhaps a couple more bites, in fact.
"We don't say, like, 'We need to win the national championship this year; we need to be in the Final Four,' " Ulmer said. "It's not like that. But it is, we're working in a way so that we can be champions. That's how we talk."
Stone is one of the most dynamic players in the country, a charismatic leader who averaged 3.02 kills and 1.19 blocks per set while hitting .342 as a junior. It was Stone who found the floor for the kill that ended Oregon's marathon Sweet Sixteen win over Minnesota last season, setting off a jubilant celebration she'd like to experience again this fall.
"The focus that we had in that game … we really focused on one point at a time," Stone said. "And when we lost to Nebraska, we let them go on a couple runs, and then we were getting into our (heads) a little. I think we learned a lot from playing Minnesota, because you can see what you can get away with – which is not a lot – and when you really have to step on the gas."
Driving the UO offense this season will be an attack led by Stone, the big left arm of Johnson on the right side, and Nuneviller newly installed on the left side. Nuneviller is a shorter hitter at 5-foor-11, but she's explosively athletic, and has played hitter most of her life despite excelling as a libero last season and with Team USA the last few summers.
"She's really good at using her vision, and her shot selection is amazing – one of the best on the team," Stone said. "Being small, she has to be even better at those things."
Were Borup available, she'd provide a presence like the departed Vander Weide did in her career, providing offense on the outside but also a credible presence at the net plus impressive passing ability from a taller player. But Borup remains limited for practices as she recovers from surgery.
"The bummer about not having Taylor Borup right now is, it kind of forces one of the freshmen to have to step up and make plays, and be at that level," Ulmer said. "But that also gives them the opportunity to do that. So hopefully, that pays dividends in the long run."
That process begins Friday, when the Ducks open the 2019 season at home against UC Irvine.
