Ducks Drop Opening Match of Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge

Friday, September 13

University Park, PA

3:00 PM

University of Oregon

2-2

Minnesota

3-2

Oregon

Minnesota

Photo by: Christopher Shannon

Ducks Drop Opening Match of Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge

09/13/19 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score #8 Minnesota 3, #10 Oregon 0

By: Nate Krueger

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The 10th ranked Oregon volleyball team dropped the opening match of the Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge to No. 8 Minnesota, 25-23, 25-18, 25-19, on Friday night at Rec Hall.

How it Happened: A rematch of last season's thrilling NCAA Sweet Sixteen showdown, it was a game of runs between the Ducks (2-2) and Gophers in the opening set. Minnesota (3-2) used a 4-0 run to jump out to a 6-2 lead, but Oregon responded with nine points in 10 rallies to move ahead 11-7. With UO leading 13-10, the Gophers ripped off nine in a row to take control. Oregon kept battling and got within 24-23 with a 5-1 run, but the ensuing serve sailed long and the Gophers held on for a 25-23 win.

The second set was tied 11-11 when Minnesota went on a 6-1 run to make it 17-12 and force Oregon into using a timeout. Oregon got to within three, 18-15, but the Gophers scored seven of the final 10 points to take a 2-0 lead into intermission.

Oregon led 5-3 early in the third before Minnesota ripped off an 11-1 run to take a commanding 14-6 lead while forcing the Ducks to use both of their timeouts. The Ducks showed they would not go down without a fight with Minnesota holding match point at 24-13, scoring six straight points to get within 24-19 before a service error ended the set and the match.

Who Stood Out: The Ducks were without senior all-American Willow Johnson, who went down with an injury in Wednesday's match at No. 6 Pittsburgh. Sophomore all-American Brooke Nuneviller led Oregon with 12 kills and 13 digs for her second straight double-double, and senior all-American Ronika Stone put down nine kills to go with five digs and two blocks. Freshman Taylor Williams added six kills, four digs and four blocks, Kylie Robinson dished out 29 assists with six digs and libero Georgia Murphy finished with nine digs.

What it Means: Playing without both Johnson and senior outside hitter Taylor Borup, the Ducks relied on six true freshmen and two redshirt freshmen around Stone and Nuneviller in their second of three straight matches against top-10 teams. These matches will serve as great learning opportunities for a young Oregon squad that hopes to get healthy and make a lot of noise in Pac-12 play and into the postseason.

Notable: Nuneviller notched her second straight double-double and second of her career … Stone raised her career block assist total to 344, second most in program history … Minnesota snapped a two-match losing streak against the Ducks to even the all-time series, 4-4.

Up Next: The Ducks will wrap up the first week of a two-week East Coast road trip on Saturday against No. 4 Penn State (5 p.m. PT, BTN+) in their third straight top-10 showdown.