Ducks Unveil Another Exciting Schedule For 2010
EUGENE – Coming off its first string of four straight NCAA tournament appearances, the University of Oregon women’s volleyball team looks ahead to another national-caliber schedule in its 43rd season this fall.
Sixteen of the 30 matches on the Ducks’ 2010 schedule will be against returning NCAA tournament qualifiers from 2009.
Duck fans can catch seven of those contests in Eugene against Elite Eight returnee California, NCAA Regional advancer Stanford, the Round of 32 trio of UCLA, USC and Washington, and two others that competed in the NCAA opening round – Arizona and Washington State.
Returning home for its final season at McArthur Court, Oregon will first give a free sneak peak of this year’s squad at a 7 p.m. scrimmage on Saturday, August 14, and a week later at a 7 p.m. exhibition match against various Duck alumni on Saturday, August 21.
UO then kicks off the 12-match non-conference schedule at the Fresno State Invitational, Saturday-Sunday, August 27-28 against UC Riverside, Santa Clara and Fresno State.
Oregon’s first official home contest follows against Florida Gulf Coast, Wednesday, September 1 at 7 p.m. Four other contests are set for McArthur Court the following two weeks against American (9/10), Siena (9/12) and Portland (9/15).
UO’s other non-conference tilts come at Seattle (9/6), at Portland State (9/7) and at the Allstate Sugar Bowl Classic, Friday-Saturday, September 17-18 vs. Sam Houston State and NCAA returnees Florida International and Tulane.
The Pac-10 slate opens with 7 p.m. matches vs. Northwest rivals Washington State and Washington in Eugene, Friday-Saturday, September 24-25.
Oregon’s other home Pac-10 weekends are against Arizona State and Arizona (Fri.-Sat., Oct. 8-9), Oregon State (Fri., Oct. 15), Stanford and California (Fri.-Sat., Oct. 29-30) and UCLA and USC (Fri.-Sat., Nov. 19-20).
The NCAA postseason begins in December with 16 yet-to-be-announced sites hosting four-team brackets, Thursday-Saturday, December 2-4. The NCAA Regional third- and fourth-round contests follow on Thursday-Saturday, Dec. 9-11, and the NCAA Championship semifinal and final are set for Kansas City, Mo., on Thu., Dec. 16 and Sat., Dec. 18, respectively.
Last year, UO again spent the entire season ranked top 20 and climbed as high seventh nationally – its second highest polling ever - en route to its third straight 20-win season (20-10) for the first time since 1978-80, a 14th-place NCAA tourney seeding and 17th-place final ranking.
The Pacific-10 Conference welcomes back a host of the nation’s top teams after all 10 programs were ranked top 25 or received votes last season, and a record-tying eight squads advanced to the NCAA tournament.
In ’09, Oregon also finished .500 or better in league play for the third straight season (9-9 ’09; 11-7 ’08; 9-9 ’07) for the first time since 1986-88, and its sixth-place finish marked its fourth straight top-six finish (fourth in ’08, fifth (tie) in ’07 and sixth (tie) in ’06).
In regular-season non-conference action under sixth-year mentor Jim Moore, UO went 10-0 in 2009 and raised its record in that stretch to 54-3 (.947) - the best winning percentage of any Oregon volleyball coach.
Looking ahead to 2010, the Ducks will feature a new-look squad that graduated a trio of school record holders in various stat categories last season but still offers plenty of talent.
Senior outside hitter Heather Meyers is a former NCAA Regional All-Tournament Team pick and one of the program’s top all-time career scorers, while freshman Katherine Fischer was a 2009 All-Pac-10 Freshman Team choice. Another pair of returning starters, sophomores Haley Jacob and Kellie Kawasaki, manned the libero position last year. Junior middle blocker Rhiannon Tooker, and sophomore hitters Lauren Gross and Jocelyn Levig are also key returnees.
The team’s talented and deep newcomer class is headlined by redshirt sophomore transfer Alaina Bergsma who ranked nationally for Loyola Marymount in 2009 in points (ninth, 5.24 per set), kills (4.47 p/s) and aces (45th, 0.40 p/s), and was an All-West Coast Conference honoree and WCC Freshman of the Year.
Oregon’s other additions include redshirt freshman libero Courtney Vaccarello (San Jose, Calif.), freshman setters Camryn Irwin (Brush Prairie, Wash.) and Lauren Plum (Poway, Calif.), outside hitter Jaklyn Wheeler (Red Bluff, Calif.) and middle blocker Ariana Williams (Riverside, Calif.).
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