Ducks Drop Five-Set Thriller to No. 9 Purdue

Wednesday, November 27

7:30 PM

University of Oregon

21-7,13-6Big Ten

Purdue

24-6,15-4Big Ten

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
Purdue	19	22	29	25	15	3
Oregon	25	25	27	23	13	2

Photo by: Molly McPherson

11/27/24 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

No. 13 Oregon closes out the regular season Friday at UCLA (1:30 p.m., Peacock).

EUGENE, Ore. — The No. 13 Oregon volleyball team jumped out to a 2-0 lead Wednesday night before ninth-ranked Purdue rallied for a five-set victory at Matthew Knight Arena. With the setback, the Ducks drop to 21-7 this season with a 13-6 mark in Big Ten play.

Mimi Colyer had 20 kills and 12 digs for her team-leading eighth double-double of the season. Michelle Ohwobete, the night's national anthem singer, registered a double-double of her own with 16 kills and a season-high 19 digs. Noemie Glover and Onye Ofoegbu also reached double figures Wednesday with 15 and 14 kills, respectively.

Cristin Cline dished out a season-high 59 assists to go along with seven digs and three blocks.

Libero Mackenzie Morris led all players with 28 digs, her third 20-dig performance of the season. Daley McClellan, in her first match since Nov. 2 against UCLA, chipped in with 11 digs. At the net, Colby Neal posted a match-high eight blocks followed closed by six each from Glover and Ofoegbu.

Oregon finished the night with 14.5 total team blocks, its sixth-consecutive match in double figures.

How It Happened: The Ducks hit .313 in the opening set, rattling off seven of the last 10 points to take the 1-0 match lead. Oregon led by as many as seven at 14-7 on the heels of a Morris ace. On its second set point, Ohwobete picked up the kill after her overpass landed out of the reaching of a diving Purdue defender.

In a tighter second frame, the visitors led 20-18 before the Ducks responded with a five-point surge in front of the 3,030 fans at Matthew Knight Arena. Glover and Ofoegbu teamed up for a block and each had a kill during the push. The home team went up 2-0 with the help of a Colyer kill.

The final three sets Wednesday featured 34 ties and 16 lead changes with each frame decided by two points, all in Purdue's favor.

Oregon had two match points in the third at 24-23 and 27-26 but were felled by a service error into the net and a blocking error, respectively. Purdue (24-6, 15-4) won the final three points to extend play.

In the fourth, the largest lead by either team was three points—Oregon up 14-11—but Purdue took the lead for good at 18-17 on an Ohwobete attack error. The Ducks staved off the first of two set points on an error by the visitors but Purdue's Chloe Chicoine put away a kill to end the next rally and force a fifth set.

Chicoine and teammate Eva Hudson combined for 15 of their team's 18 kills in the fourth set. Hudson finished the night with a match-high 28 kills.

The decisive fifth set featured 12 tied and four lead changes. With the score tied at 7-7, Colyer and Neal combined for a block to give Oregon an 8-7 lead before the teams switched sides of the floor. Back-to-back kills for Colyer put UO ahead 11-10 and forced Purdue to use a timeout. It was the Ducks' last lead of the night. Colyer tallied her final kill to tie the score at 12.

The Lincoln, Calif., native had six of her 20 kills in the fifth set, hitting .545 (6-0-11) in the frame.

At 13-all, however, Chicoine and Hudson had the final two kills. The final tally, a kill off a would-be Neal block that just landed out of bounds, was unsuccessfully challenged to officially end the five setter in the Boilermakers' favor.

Notable: Colyer moved into ninth place (1,398) on the program's career kills list … Wednesday was the fifth meeting between Oregon and Purdue but the first on either team's home floor … UO's second loss this season after winning the first two sets (Nov. 17 at #23 USC) … Ohwobete sang the national anthem before the match.

Told ya??

Never beating those 'she's so talented' allegations, Michelle.#GoDucks x @NCAAVolleyball https://t.co/z3FNI5tbWa pic.twitter.com/1Vig7OMLC9
— Oregon Volleyball (@OregonVB) November 28, 2024

Up Next: Oregon closes out the regular season Friday afternoon at UCLA. First serve is set for 1:30 p.m. on Peacock.

For more news and information about Oregon Volleyball, follow @OregonVB on Instagram and Twitter, and @OregonVolleyball on Facebook.