University of Oregon
Washington State
RPI Slip Has Oregon's Attention As Ducks Enter Homestretch
11/16/17 | Women's Volleyball, @GoDucksMoseley
Oregon has had a goal all season of hosting in the postseason, and will need to finish the regular season strong beginning against WSU on Friday (3 p.m., Pac-12 Network).
For all its success this season, the No. 20 Oregon volleyball team has dropped eight matches, including seven in Pac-12 play.
So it's not as if the Ducks haven't had to deal with some disappointment this season. But when the UO women learned, in the wake of their loss Sunday at Arizona, that they'd dropped all the way from No. 9 to No. 22 in the RPI – imperiling their chances of hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament – the news stirred a whole new range of emotions.
"I've never seen us more disappointed," first-year UO coach Matt Ulmer said. "I hope that's a motivator for us."
From the beginning of preseason practice, Oregon has been searching for a level of consistency worthy of a championship team. The Ducks have found it only in spurts, but still they were competing well enough in the rigorous Pac-12 Conference to merit a No. 9 ranking in the RPI last week – comfortably in position to be one of the 16 teams hosting the opening weekend of the postseason.
Any illusions the Ducks had about being able to host without stringing together an extended stretch of success late in the regular season has been shattered. Oregon has just four matches left, beginning against Washington State in Matthew Knight Arena on Friday (3 p.m., Pac-12 Network). It might take as many as four wins, and almost certainly no less than three, to get back into the top 16.
"There's ways for us to work back into hosting," Ulmer said. "But that means we have to play well, and we have to come away with some victories."
The Ducks (16-8, 9-7 Pac-12) have only managed to string together consecutive conference wins once, a four-game win streak at midseason. The good news is, three of those matches were played at home; Friday's match against WSU is the first of three straight at Matthew Knight Arena, followed by the Civil War in Corvallis to close out the regular season on Nov. 24.
But Oregon's inconsistencies have even popped up at MKA. The four-match win streak ended at home against Colorado, a match in which the Ducks fell behind 2-0, rallied to force a fifth game and then came up short.
"Coming down the stretch we have to win, we have to perform," senior setter Maggie Scott said. "We can't have these lulls and expect to compete at the level we want to compete at. Hopefully we learned it this time, and hopefully we'll keep going up the rest of the season."
For the Ducks, it feels like there's nowhere to go but up, after Sunday's defeat at Arizona. The Wildcats had only three conference wins entering the match, but the Ducks couldn't hold on to a 2-0 lead after two sets.
Already, Oregon's RPI was going to take a hit after the trip to the desert, because playing the teams with the two worst records in the Pac-12 would hurt the Ducks' strength of schedule. Losing only further compounded the blow.
"I wasn't really surprised," senior hitter Taylor Agost said of her reaction to the updated RPI. "It was more like frustration. Because it was in our hands, and we let that happen."
Rebounding is also in the Ducks' hands. Washington State, the opponent Friday afternoon, is the lowest-rated foe left for Oregon in the regular season, at No. 43 in the RPI. Washington, which visits MKA on Sunday at 1 p.m., is No. 8. The No. 9 team, USC, plays in Eugene on Wednesday, and the Beavers are No. 29.
That's four top-50 teams, and three in the top 30.
"We have four great opportunities left," Ulmer said.
Play well enough over the next two weeks, and the Ducks won't have to worry about the USC match being the home finale in the careers of Scott, Agost and the rest of the senior class. But it's far from a given that Oregon can play its way back into position to host in the postseason.
"Ultimately, we have to be tougher," Ulmer said. "We have to be more consistent. It's the same thing I've been preaching all year, and we're still not doing it. …
"We can be the best team in the country one set, and the next set I don't know who we are. As long as we keep doing that, we're going to be on this roller coaster. And we're not going to like where it ends."
