Vaulet Shines in Five-Set Loss at Northwestern

Sunday, September 28

Evanston, IL

12:00 PM

University of Oregon

9-3,0-2Big Ten

Northwestern

11-3,1-1Big Ten

Oregon

Northwestern

09/28/25 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Oregon (9-3, 0-2) faced an 0-2 match deficit before forcing a fifth set in Evanston.

EVANSTON, Ill. — Junior Valentina Vaulet had a career-high 28 kills but the Oregon volleyball team lost in five sets to Northwestern Sunday afternoon at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The Ducks are now 9-3 this season with an 0-2 mark in Big Ten play.

Vaulet hit .451 against the Wildcats, committing just five attack errors on 51 swings. Her 28 kills replace her previous best of 26 at Michigan—also against Northwestern—from a season ago. Vaulet's effort was the seventh 20-kill performance of her career, and first in an Oregon jersey. She also had six digs, three blocks, two service aces and a pair of assists in the match.

Sophia Meyers and Alanah Clemente also finished in double figures with 16 and 10 kills, respectively. It was a season-high tying effort for Meyers. Freshman middle blocker Holley McFadden added a season-high eight kills while hitting .667 to go along with three blocks. Senior Cora Taylor had a season-high 47 assists and nine digs.

Freshman libero Natalie Fukumoto led all players with 16 digs.

How It Happened: Oregon and Northwestern (11-3, 1-1) were tied late in both of the first two sets—22-22 in the first and 21-21 in the second—but the home team used respective three- and four-point runs to end each frame to take the 2-0 match lead.

The Ducks led by as much as five in the third set, for the first time at 17-12 after back-to-back aces from Clemente and once again at 21-16 after a pair of Vaulet kills. However, the Wildcats rattled off the next five points to pull even at 21-all. The teams were tied again at 22 and 23 before Meyers gave her team a set point at 24-23.

Northwestern saved that set point but on the Ducks' second opportunity to extend play, Vaulet came up with a solo block to secure the set, 26-24, and get Oregon on the scoreboard.

Vaulet now has multiple aces in nine matches this season.

The fourth set featured 16 ties and neither team led by more than two but Northwestern had a pair of match points at 24-22. After an NU service error, Taylor and Iva Sucurovic teamed up for a block to tie things at 24-all. The Wildcats had third and fourth match points at 25-24 and 26-25 but Oregon turned to Vaulet who responded with her 25^th and 26^th kills.

On the Ducks' second set point, Vaulet stepped back to the service line and dialed up her second ace of the afternoon. Oregon won the set, 29-27.

The early stages of the fifth set resembled most of the match with the teams trading points to a 4-4 tie. Two of the first four UO points came from McFadden kills. The Wildcats, however, made the final move with a five-point run and eventually led 12-6. The Ducks got as close as four down the stretch and got a Clemente kill to save a match point but Northwestern got a kill from Isabella Bullington to end the next rally and secure the match.

Bullington (10 kills) was one of four Wildcats in double figures, led by Ayah Elnady with 16 kills.

Notable: Fourth five setter of the season (2-2) … season-high 74 kills; previous high was 69 at Portland State (Sept. 19) … eighth match hitting .275 or higher (.283) as a team … eight aces in three of the past four matches … second time this season with 20 or more service errors (21).

Up Next: Oregon hosts Iowa this Friday, Oct. 3, for a Green Out at Matthew Knight Arena. First serve of the Ducks' conference home opener is set for 6 p.m. Click HERE to buy tickets.

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