Stone's Milestone Day Leads Ducks to Sweep

Friday, September 20

Hempstead, NY

4:00 PM

University of Oregon

3-5

Hofstra

7-3

Oregon

Hofstra

Photo by: Samuel Marshall

09/20/19 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score #14 Oregon 3, Hofstra 0 2019 Combined Stats

By: Nate Krueger

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – The Oregon volleyball team bounced back from a pair of tough losses and closed its regular season nonconference schedule on a high note on Friday night in the final match of the Hofstra Invitational, taking down Hofstra in straight sets, 25-20, 25-21, 25-19, at the David S. Mack Physical Education Center.

The No. 14 Ducks (4-5) swept the Pride behind a big match from senior all-American Ronika Stone, who hit .615 with a match-high 17 kills while surpassing 1,000 kills for her career.

How it Happened: Hofstra (7-3) played to an early 9-7 lead in the first, but kills by Kylie Robinson and Karson Bacon jumpstarted a 12-4 Oregon run that gave the Ducks a 19-13 advantage. Stone began to take over late in the set with four kills in a span of eight points, and Oregon staved off a late 5-1 Hofstra run to hold on and win the set, with Brooke Nuneviller and Taylor Williams finishing things off with back-to-back kills.

The Pride led 8-5 to start the second set when Bacon racked up two kills and two blocks as part of a 6-1 Oregon run. Hofstra retook the lead with three straight, but a kill by Stone, the 1,000th of her career, made it 15-14 and marked the final lead change of the set. Oregon finished the set on a 9-3 run, fueled by two kills each from Nuneviller and Williams, and took a 2-0 lead into intermission.

Stone 1K

Oregon erased an early Hofstra lead in the third with a 5-0 run before the Pride battled back to an 11-11 tie, but Stone began to dominate in the middle with three kills and a block as Oregon forced a Pride timeout leading 15-11. Stone stayed hot out the break with another kill and Robinson added two to make it 20-13. Hofstra cut it to within four with a 3-0 run, but Oregon scored five of the final eight points to secure the sweep, with Stone capping her big day with a kill on the final play.

Who Stood Out: Stone committed just one attack error on a team-high 26 swings while recording her fourth straight match with at least 17 kills and upping her career kill total to 1,010. Robinson dished out 32 assists and added seven digs, six kills and two service aces, Williams put down eight kills and Bacon contributed six kills and a team-high five blocks, including two solo. Nuneviller led the team with nine digs and tallied five kills, and libero Georgia Murphy had eight digs while helping hold Hofstra to just a .198 attack percentage.

Notable: Oregon hit .374 for the match, including a whopping .467 mark in the third set, committing only nine attack errors on 99 attempts … With 1,307.5 career points, Stone is just eight points away from passing Neticia Enesi (1,315.5, 2006-09) for No. 9 on the Oregon all-time list … Senior Willow Johnson did not play against Hofstra, but the all-American did play in the back row earlier on Friday against Duke, her first action since getting injured at Pittsburgh on Sept. 11 … Oregon improved to 2-0 all-time against Hofstra, winning the first meeting between the teams since 1985.

Up Next: Oregon will open Pac-12 play on Thursday, Sept. 26, with a Civil War showdown against Oregon State in Corvallis (5:30 p.m., Pac-12 Networks).