Pac-12 Play Begins Thursday With Civil War Showdown in Corvallis

EUGENE, Ore. - The Oregon volleyball team will kick off its 2019 Pac-12 schedule at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday with a Civil War showdown against Oregon State in Corvallis.

The No. 24 ranked Ducks are looking to get conference play off to a strong start after going 4-5 in a loaded nonconference schedule that included a trio of top-10 opponents. After playing the Beavers on Thursday, Oregon will return home to Matthew Knight Arena to host No. 18 Utah at 12 p.m. on Sunday in the Ducks' Stomp Out Cancer match in support of childhood cancer awareness month.

How to Follow
Thursday's Civil War match will be broadcast live on Pac-12 Networks, while Sunday's contest against No. 18 Utah will be live streamed at GoDucks.com/Live. Live stats can be found at Oregon.Statbroadcast.com, and live updates will be provided on Twitter at @OregonVB.

#StompOutCancer Match Set for Sunday
Sunday's match against No. 18 in MKA will serve as Oregon's #StompOutCancer and Yellow Out match to show support for childhood cancer awareness month. Raising awareness for childhood cancer is especially important to the Ducks due to their relationship with 9-year-old Danielle Bixby, who is in her second year as part of the team after joining the Ducks last season through the national nonprofit Team IMPACT. Bixby, who underwent her final round of chemotherapy last year, has been fighting a rare form of cancer called Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis. Fans can follow Danielle and her fight on her Facebook Page: Princess Danielle's Journey With LCH.

About the Oregon State Beavers (6-5)
Oregon State opened the 2019 season 6-2 before going 0-3 last weekend in Colorado while battling through some injuries. Libero Grace Massey is sixth in the Pac-12 with 4.26 digs per set, and six different Beavers are averaging 2.3 kills per set or better in OSU's 6-2 offense. The Ducks have won six of the last eight Civil War meetings and 23 of the last 26. OSU has not won consecutive Civil War matches since 2005.

About the #18 Utah Utes (8-3)
No. 18 Utah enters Pac-12 play on a three-match losing streak after getting the 2019 season off to an 8-0 start. The Utes lead the Pac-12 with 3.2 blocks per set, paced by Berkeley Oblad's 1.53 rejections per game. Dani Drews leads the offense with 4.20 kills per set, sixth best in the league, and Brianna Doehrmann anchors the back row defense with 3.48 digs per set. UO has won 10 of the last 14 meetings vs. the Utes.

Stone Joins 1,000 Kill Club
SR MB Ronika Stone has a chance to etch her name at the top of multiple UO all-time lists before her career ends, and the 2018 second-team all-American reached an impressive milestone last week on the East Coast. Stone surpassed the 1,000 career kills mark on Friday night with a match-high 17 on .615 hitting against Hofstra, upping her total to 1,010 kills on only 2,052 career swings. Stone's current .361 career hitting percentage wouuld shatter Sue Harbour's program record of .333, and the San Jose, Calif., native also moved into 10th in Oregon history last week with 1,307.5 career points. Stone currently ranks second all-time at UO with 359 career block assists, just 30 behind all-time leader Neticia Enesi (389, 2006-10), and she is also seventh with 407 total blocks, sitting 135 behind Harbour's program record of 542. So far in 2019, Stone is leading the Ducks with 3.73 k/s and 4.50 p/s while hitting at a whopping .388 clip, fifth best in the Pac-12.

Nuneviller Embracing New Role
SO OH Brooke Nuneviller was one of the nation's top liberos as a freshman in 2018, but the Chandler, Ariz., native has moved to outside hitter as a sophomore and is really beginning to thrive in her new role. Nuneviller leads the Ducks with five double-doubles while averaging 3.21 k/s (.236) and a team-best 2.91 d/s, and she posted three straight matches with 15 or more kills while hitting better than .315 last week on the East Coast. Nuneviller willed the Ducks to a five-set comeback road win over Princeton last Tuesday with a career-high 19 kills on .389 hitting, including an astounding 13 in the final two sets.

Young Ducks Gaining Valuable Experience
Oregon entered the 2019 season with a very young roster, boasting seven true freshmen and three redshirt freshmen, and those Ducks earned valuable match experience during Oregon's rigorous nonconference schedule. With SR OH Taylor Borup still rehabbing an injury from last season and SR RS Willow Johnson going down with an injury on Sept. 11 at Pittsburgh, the Ducks have relied mainly on five true freshmen and two redshirt freshmen around Stone and Nuneviller over the last six matches. RFR S Kylie Robinson is second in the Pac-12 and 17th nationally with 11.09 a/s, and RFR MB Karson Bacon leads the Ducks with 1.09 b/s while hitting .322 with 1.76 k/s. FR L Georgia Murphy has impressed defensively with 2.88 d/s, as has FR DS Bea Wetton (1.91 d/s), and the duo of FR RS/MB Morgan Lewis and FR OH Taylor Williams have shown flashes of brilliance on the outside. FR S Elise Ferreira and FR OH Jade Sadeiko have also seen early action.

Oregon Remains in AVCA Top 25
The Ducks moved down 10 spots in the AVCA coaches poll after a 2-2 showing last week on the back end of their two-week East Coast trip, but UO remained in the top 25 at No. 24. UO ended 2018 at No. 9 after its thrilling run to the NCAA Elite Eight and opened 2019 at No. 11 before moving to No. 9 in week one, No. 10 in week two and No. 14 in week three. Oregon has been ranked in the AVCA top 25 for 21 straight polls and 49 of the last 50.

Efficiency is Key
Oregon's success in 2018 leaned largely on winning the attack percentage battle, and the same has been true so far in 2019. The Ducks are 4-1 so far this season when leading in attack percentage after going 21-2 in 2018 when finishing with a more efficient offensive attack. Oregon is also 4-1 this year when leading in kills; the Ducks were 19-5 in 2018 when finding the floor more often than their opponent.

Stone, Ducks End Nonconference Play on High Note With Road Sweep
The Ducks got off to a slow start at the Hofstra Invitational last weekend, falling in four sets to St. John's on Thursday and in five tight sets to Duke on Friday morning, but Oregon ended nonconference play on a high note with a 25-20, 25-21, 25-19 sweep over Hofstra on Friday night. SR MB Ronika Stone carried the Ducks with a match-high 17 kills on .615 hitting while surpassing 1,000 career kills, leading Oregon to an impressive .374 team hitting percentage.

Nuneviller Leads Five-Set Comeback Win at Princeton
Oregon got off to a slow start last Tuesday against Princeton, but the Ducks came roaring back from down 2-1 to win the final two sets, 25-15 and 18-16, and escape New Jersey with a thrilling victory. Playing without SR RS Willow Johnson for the third straight match, Oregon relied on the all-American duo of SO OH Brooke Nuneviller and SR MB Ronika Stone. Nuneviller took over for the Ducks late to will Oregon to a comeback win, putting down an astounding 13 kills in the final two sets to finish with a career-high 19 on .389 hitting while adding 11 digs. Stone was terrific as well with 18 kills on .293 hitting to help UO snap a three-match losing streak.

Up Next
Oregon will continue Pac-12 action at home next week, hosting No. 1 Stanford on Oct. 4 (ESPN2) and California on Oct. 6.