Thursday, December 8
Louisville, KY
8:00 AM
University of Oregon
26-5,17-3Pac-12
3
vs
2
Nebraska
26-6,16-4Big Ten
1
2
3
4
5
F
Oregon
14
26
22
32
15
3
Nebraska
25
24
25
30
11
2
Photo by: Molly McPherson
Fighting Ducks Reach Elite Eight
12/08/22 | Women's Volleyball
Oregon fought off match point four times in the fourth set Thursday during the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament before beating Nebraska in five sets.
LOUISVILLE — Four years after winning a marathon Sweet Sixteen match and four weeks after a season-defining reverse sweep at Colorado, Oregon volleyball proved itself to be a team of Fighting Ducks once again Thursday.
Summoning the same grit they showed in upsetting Minnesota to reach the Elite Eight in 2018, and in fighting back from down 19-9 and staring at a four-set loss to the Buffaloes on the road Nov. 10, the Ducks fought off four match points with their season on the line Thursday to beat Nebraska in five sets. For the first time since that 2018 season, the UO women will play for an NCAA Tournament regional title.
Oregon dropped the opening set Thursday, won the second and lost the third. Nebraska rallied from behind in the fourth by scoring three straight points to lead 25-24, but the Ducks fought off match point. They did so again down 26-25, and again down 28-27. And again down 29-28.
"Were you not thinking about Minnesota?" UO coach Matt Ulmer said after the match to all-American Brooke Nuneviller, a freshman on Oregon's 2018 team that used a marathon 41-39 win in set two against the Gophers to catapult them to a win in that year's Sweet Sixteen. "I was like, we're gonna be here all day again."
It didn't take quite that long, as Nuneviller got an overpass to find the floor for the set-four win Thursday at 32-30. The Ducks then raced out to a lead in set five, struggled to close out the match but finally did so on their seventh attempt at match point to win, 14-25, 26-24, 22-25, 32-30, 15-11.
Oregon will face regional host Louisville on Saturday, for a spot in the Final Four. The Ducks will look to make the national semifinals for the first time since 2012 — when they beat Nebraska in the Elite Eight to do so.
That regional final appearance by the Cornhuskers in 2012 began a streak of 10 straight Elite Eight appearances for the program. That streak ended Thursday at the hands of the Ducks.
"There's so many student-athletes out there that just care about this so much, and it's so hard to beat a team that wants in that bad," Ulmer said. "Nebraska, they wanted it really bad — and so did we. It just set up to be a really great environment, a really great battle. And both teams showed up."
Pac-12 freshman of the year Mimi Colyer led Oregon offensively with 26 kills, tied for the fourth-most in UO tournament history with Liz Brenner, during the 2012 run to the Final Four. Nuneviller added 16 kills plus 15 digs, surpassing both 1,500 career kills and 2,000 career digs in the process. Hannah Pukis had 57 assists, fifth-most in UO tournament history, and Morgan Lewis provided critical offensive punch off the bench with a season-high 13 kills.
Five days after dropping the first set in a second-round win over Arkansas, the Ducks again needed time to settle in Thursday. They ended up going five sets for the first time since Nov. 20, a reverse sweep at home over USC that followed by a week the reverse sweep at Colorado — in which Oregon trailed 19-9 in the fourth set before rallying to win.
"We have to get comfortable with what they're bringing," Nuneviller said. "You can only watch so much with film; once we actually see it on the court, then we're able to adjust a little better moving on.
"And," she added, "we're getting nerves out, for sure."
If there was an exception to that Thursday, it was Colyer, The freshman had two kills with four errors in the opening set against the Razorbacks, but there was no sign of nerves against Nebraska — although the Ducks dropped the first set again, Colyer had three kills with a single error, matching the stat line of Nuneviller.
Oregon's star freshman was then absolutely dominant in the second set, posting nine kills with no errors as the Ducks evened the match. Several were out of the back row, an attack that is proving to be quite formidable for Colyer in recent weeks, despite the pressure-packed environment of the NCAA Tournament.
"It's exciting," Colyer said. "Obviously I'm new here, and we don't see a lot of stuff like that in high school and club. But I just rely on my teammates, knowing we're going to get this done, and try to play our best volleyball."
Oregon's ability to handle the pressure of the moment was revealed a couple of times mid-match Thursday. Late in the second set with the Ducks looking to close it out at 24-23, Pukis put a serve into the net and play continued. Then, early in the third, Georgia Murphy had a service error on which she tripped on her approach and never got the ball into play.
In both cases, frustration could have bubbled over. The reactions from Pukis and Murphy? A quick laugh at their mistakes before regrouping to face the next point.
"This is a game of errors," Ulmer said, "and if you can be the one that can understand that and just bounce back quicker, be more resilient, then you have a much better chance of staying in the match. (The Cornhuskers) make so many plays that are going to make you feel like you can never win — which I feel like they did time and time again. But you just go back and you try to do the best you can do."
It would take all of that attitude to endure the fourth set, which conjured the marathon second set at Minnesota in 2018. Nebraska had consecutive aces during a four-point run to lead 16-13, before Oregon rallied behind the serve of Pukis to score five straight and lead 22-20. Up 24-22, the Ducks failed to close out the set twice, and suddenly it was instead match point for Nebraska.
Lewis kept Oregon's season alive with a kill to tie it back up. A Nebraska error when it was 26-25 again extended the Ducks' season, as did kills by Colyer at 28-27 and Pukis at 29-28.
Lewis had another kill to break a 30-30 tie and set up Oregon's fifth crack at set point. That was her eighth kill in the fourth set alone.
"Morgan just made some huge plays for us," Ulmer said. "It was really important to spread the floor, because it was just really left-side dominant early. So to be able to get that separation, that was important."
On the eventual fourth-set winner, Nuneviller was just looking to keep a rally alive. But her overpass hit the floor and forced the fifth.
"I'm just so proud of these guys," said Ulmer, whose team hit .217 against Nebraska's NCAA-leading defense, the Ducks' lowest average since the reverse sweep at Colorado. "They never give up, ever. And I think you've heard it from them a bunch this year — they never feel like they're gonna lose, no matter what the circumstances are. They just have total belief in themselves."
The Ducks scored three straight early in the fifth to go up 4-2, with Colyer finishing off a play extended by one of Nuneviller's standard make-the-amazing-look-casual digs. After Karson Bacon's seventh kill of the match made it 7-4, Colyer took over serve and didn't give it up until Oregon led 13-4, sustaining the rally through two timeouts and a challenge by Nebraska's coaching staff. A tip by Nuneviller set up match point at 14-5.
The Cornhuskers didn't go down quietly, winning the next six points with their season on the line. But the Ducks finally finished it off, on the fifth kill of the match by Kiari Robey.
Oregon's players rushed the floor to celebrate. Then they retired to the locker room, waiting for Colyer to finish a postgame interview before lying in wait for Ulmer to finally enter, then dousing him with water bottles. It was a celebration worthy of the program's first victory in the Sweet Sixteen since 2018, when they lost to the Cornhuskers the following day in the Elite Eight.
This time, the Ducks have a day off Friday before returning to the floor against Louisville on Saturday.
"Last time we didn't really get to enjoy it," Ulmer said. "We went right back to the hotel to watch film of Nebraska. So I hope today that they enjoy it. It's a great thing — I mean, this is a big deal. To be able to get to this time year and play against great competition, and to be able to have success, I hope they enjoy that today."
Summoning the same grit they showed in upsetting Minnesota to reach the Elite Eight in 2018, and in fighting back from down 19-9 and staring at a four-set loss to the Buffaloes on the road Nov. 10, the Ducks fought off four match points with their season on the line Thursday to beat Nebraska in five sets. For the first time since that 2018 season, the UO women will play for an NCAA Tournament regional title.
Oregon dropped the opening set Thursday, won the second and lost the third. Nebraska rallied from behind in the fourth by scoring three straight points to lead 25-24, but the Ducks fought off match point. They did so again down 26-25, and again down 28-27. And again down 29-28.
"Were you not thinking about Minnesota?" UO coach Matt Ulmer said after the match to all-American Brooke Nuneviller, a freshman on Oregon's 2018 team that used a marathon 41-39 win in set two against the Gophers to catapult them to a win in that year's Sweet Sixteen. "I was like, we're gonna be here all day again."
It didn't take quite that long, as Nuneviller got an overpass to find the floor for the set-four win Thursday at 32-30. The Ducks then raced out to a lead in set five, struggled to close out the match but finally did so on their seventh attempt at match point to win, 14-25, 26-24, 22-25, 32-30, 15-11.
Oregon will face regional host Louisville on Saturday, for a spot in the Final Four. The Ducks will look to make the national semifinals for the first time since 2012 — when they beat Nebraska in the Elite Eight to do so.
That regional final appearance by the Cornhuskers in 2012 began a streak of 10 straight Elite Eight appearances for the program. That streak ended Thursday at the hands of the Ducks.
"There's so many student-athletes out there that just care about this so much, and it's so hard to beat a team that wants in that bad," Ulmer said. "Nebraska, they wanted it really bad — and so did we. It just set up to be a really great environment, a really great battle. And both teams showed up."
Pac-12 freshman of the year Mimi Colyer led Oregon offensively with 26 kills, tied for the fourth-most in UO tournament history with Liz Brenner, during the 2012 run to the Final Four. Nuneviller added 16 kills plus 15 digs, surpassing both 1,500 career kills and 2,000 career digs in the process. Hannah Pukis had 57 assists, fifth-most in UO tournament history, and Morgan Lewis provided critical offensive punch off the bench with a season-high 13 kills.
Five days after dropping the first set in a second-round win over Arkansas, the Ducks again needed time to settle in Thursday. They ended up going five sets for the first time since Nov. 20, a reverse sweep at home over USC that followed by a week the reverse sweep at Colorado — in which Oregon trailed 19-9 in the fourth set before rallying to win.
"We have to get comfortable with what they're bringing," Nuneviller said. "You can only watch so much with film; once we actually see it on the court, then we're able to adjust a little better moving on.
"And," she added, "we're getting nerves out, for sure."
If there was an exception to that Thursday, it was Colyer, The freshman had two kills with four errors in the opening set against the Razorbacks, but there was no sign of nerves against Nebraska — although the Ducks dropped the first set again, Colyer had three kills with a single error, matching the stat line of Nuneviller.
Oregon's star freshman was then absolutely dominant in the second set, posting nine kills with no errors as the Ducks evened the match. Several were out of the back row, an attack that is proving to be quite formidable for Colyer in recent weeks, despite the pressure-packed environment of the NCAA Tournament.
"It's exciting," Colyer said. "Obviously I'm new here, and we don't see a lot of stuff like that in high school and club. But I just rely on my teammates, knowing we're going to get this done, and try to play our best volleyball."
Oregon's ability to handle the pressure of the moment was revealed a couple of times mid-match Thursday. Late in the second set with the Ducks looking to close it out at 24-23, Pukis put a serve into the net and play continued. Then, early in the third, Georgia Murphy had a service error on which she tripped on her approach and never got the ball into play.
In both cases, frustration could have bubbled over. The reactions from Pukis and Murphy? A quick laugh at their mistakes before regrouping to face the next point.
"This is a game of errors," Ulmer said, "and if you can be the one that can understand that and just bounce back quicker, be more resilient, then you have a much better chance of staying in the match. (The Cornhuskers) make so many plays that are going to make you feel like you can never win — which I feel like they did time and time again. But you just go back and you try to do the best you can do."
It would take all of that attitude to endure the fourth set, which conjured the marathon second set at Minnesota in 2018. Nebraska had consecutive aces during a four-point run to lead 16-13, before Oregon rallied behind the serve of Pukis to score five straight and lead 22-20. Up 24-22, the Ducks failed to close out the set twice, and suddenly it was instead match point for Nebraska.
Lewis kept Oregon's season alive with a kill to tie it back up. A Nebraska error when it was 26-25 again extended the Ducks' season, as did kills by Colyer at 28-27 and Pukis at 29-28.
Lewis had another kill to break a 30-30 tie and set up Oregon's fifth crack at set point. That was her eighth kill in the fourth set alone.
"Morgan just made some huge plays for us," Ulmer said. "It was really important to spread the floor, because it was just really left-side dominant early. So to be able to get that separation, that was important."
On the eventual fourth-set winner, Nuneviller was just looking to keep a rally alive. But her overpass hit the floor and forced the fifth.
"I'm just so proud of these guys," said Ulmer, whose team hit .217 against Nebraska's NCAA-leading defense, the Ducks' lowest average since the reverse sweep at Colorado. "They never give up, ever. And I think you've heard it from them a bunch this year — they never feel like they're gonna lose, no matter what the circumstances are. They just have total belief in themselves."
The Ducks scored three straight early in the fifth to go up 4-2, with Colyer finishing off a play extended by one of Nuneviller's standard make-the-amazing-look-casual digs. After Karson Bacon's seventh kill of the match made it 7-4, Colyer took over serve and didn't give it up until Oregon led 13-4, sustaining the rally through two timeouts and a challenge by Nebraska's coaching staff. A tip by Nuneviller set up match point at 14-5.
The Cornhuskers didn't go down quietly, winning the next six points with their season on the line. But the Ducks finally finished it off, on the fifth kill of the match by Kiari Robey.
Oregon's players rushed the floor to celebrate. Then they retired to the locker room, waiting for Colyer to finish a postgame interview before lying in wait for Ulmer to finally enter, then dousing him with water bottles. It was a celebration worthy of the program's first victory in the Sweet Sixteen since 2018, when they lost to the Cornhuskers the following day in the Elite Eight.
This time, the Ducks have a day off Friday before returning to the floor against Louisville on Saturday.
"Last time we didn't really get to enjoy it," Ulmer said. "We went right back to the hotel to watch film of Nebraska. So I hope today that they enjoy it. It's a great thing — I mean, this is a big deal. To be able to get to this time year and play against great competition, and to be able to have success, I hope they enjoy that today."
WHAT A FIVE-SET THRILLER ??
— NCAA Women's Volleyball (@NCAAVolleyball) December 8, 2022
Watch the highlights from (3) @OregonVB's comeback win over (2) Nebraska.#NCAAWVB pic.twitter.com/thBObKw0IA
Team Stats
Oregon
Nebr
Kills
74
63
Errors
31
26
Attempts
198
186
Hitting %
.217
.199
Points
85
84
Assists
70
58
Aces
4
7
Blocks
7
14
Game Leaders
Kills-Aces-Blocks
Kills
26
Aces
1
Blocks
3
Kills
16
Aces
0
Blocks
2
Kills
13
Aces
0
Blocks
0
Kills
7
Aces
0
Blocks
1
Players Mentioned
MB
/ Women's VolleyballOH
/ Women's Volleyball
MB/RS
/ Women's Volleyball
L
/ Women's Volleyball
OH/L
/ Women's Volleyball
S
/ Women's Volleyball
MB
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