No. 14 Ducks Soar Past Pilots, 3-0

Sunday, September 6

Portland, OR

7:00 PM

University of Oregon

5-0

Portland

2-6

OREGON

Portland

Photo by: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com

09/06/09 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: GoDucks.com

* A boxscore and play-by-play is located in the LINKS box to the right, and updated statistics are available via the link above.

PORTLAND – In its first road test of the season, the No. 14 University of Oregon volleyball team (5-0) notched its fifth sweep of the season Sunday afternoon, this time by a 25-10, 25-14, 25-17 count over the University of Portland (2-6) at the Chiles Center.

Senior outside hitter Sonja Newcombe and junior outside hitter Heather Meyers led the kills (13 / 11) and hitting categories (.661 / .667), and also came up with four and eight digs, respectively.

The Temecula, Calif., native Meyers also tied her career-high in aces (5) that she also registered twice to open the season, and also had a team-high three blocks and eight digs.

Senior middle blocker Neticia Enesi and sophomore outside hitter Dana Stephenson each added eight kills and both also hit over .500 (.533 / .500).

For the Canyon, Texas, native Stephenson, Sunday's kill tally and hitting mark (.500) were the second-highest of her career behind her totals vs. Missouri State last weekend (12, .526). She also logged her fourth straight match of five kills or more after entering the season with a previous career best of four last season vs. NCAA Sweet 16 advancer Utah.

“It's been exciting to see the team come together so quickly,” Stephenson said. “As a freshman last year, everything was a blur at times since it was all new, but now I kind of know what to expect. I'm still working on getting my timing down with Nevena (Djordjevic, the setter), but it just takes time, especially when we run the quick hits in the middle. (As a team today) We weren't in sync as much as we wanted, but it's also the first road match of the season, and it makes you realize how much you miss Mac Court, the fans, the band, etc – it's a great home court advantage when we're there.”

Senior setter Nevena Djordjevic racked up a season-high 37 assists – her fifth straight match over 30.

Freshman libero and West Linn, Ore., native Kellie Kawasaki had a team-match high and career high nine digs that nearly doubled her previous best vs. San Francisco last weekend (5).

For Portland, Jessica and Maria Clemens tied for the home team lead in kills (8) and digs (5), and other category leaders included Kaylyn Jones (15 assists, 2 blocks), Marissa Plummer (1 ace), Danielle Dupar (5 digs) and Shelley Sievers (2 blocks).

UO hit a season-high .471 Sunday and finished above .400 for the second time this season after tallying .419 against Missouri State last weekend. At the match's end, the Ducks held sizable advantages over the Pilots in hitting (4.17-.203), aces (42-25), kills (47-28), aces (12-1), digs (36-26) and blocks (5.5-4.5).

“We won, but we need to work on some things, particularly blocking,” Oregon head coach Jim Moore said. “This is an important week for us coming up because we need to keep getting better. They tried to short serve us today which is good – we knew a team would try that at some point – and we responded with a 100 percent sideout ratio.”

Glancing at the record charts, Enesi's six blocks the last two matches moved her to seventh all-time for UO, and ahead of Mindee Adams (337), with the sixth-best mark held by former teammate Kristen Bitter (378, 2003-06).

Looking ahead, UO hosts Portland State at McArthur Court, Tuesday, September 8 at 7 p.m. Fans can pick up 'Bi-Mart $2 Day' coupons at area stores to received admission for the latter match for only $2.

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