Ducks Sweep Cal Poly to Open Nike Classic

Thursday, September 7

Eugene, OR

6:00 PM

University of Oregon

5-1

Cal Poly

5-2

Cal Poly

Oregon

09/07/17 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box: #14 Oregon 3, Cal Poly 0

The 14th-ranked Oregon volleyball team opened the Nike Classic in exciting fashion on Thursday night, beating Cal Poly in straight sets, 25-22, 25-20, 25-20

By: Nate Krueger

EUGENE, Ore. - The 14th-ranked Oregon volleyball team opened the Nike Classic in exciting fashion on Thursday night at Matthew Knight Arena, beating Cal Poly in straight sets, 25-22, 25-20, 25-20.

The Ducks (5-1) kick off the four-team, three-day tournament with their third straight-set win of the season, and have now won four straight matches after sweeping the Oregon Classic at MKA last weekend.

Check out some of the top highlights from the Ducks' straight-set win over Cal Poly. Huge night on the block with 13 total #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/3LAsDbdNn2
— Oregon Volleyball (@OregonVB) September 8, 2017

How it Happened: Cal Poly (5-2) started fast out of the gate with an early 8-3 lead, but a timeout by Oregon head coach Matt Ulmer jump-started a 6-0 run that pulled the match even, 11-11. The Ducks would extend their scoring run to 14-4 to take a four-point lead, 19-15, and moved within two points of taking the set at 23-19 before the Mustangs scored three straight to pull within a point, 23-22. Oregon would finish off the set out of a timeout with kills by Taylor Agost and Ronika Stone to move ahead in the match, 1-0.

With Cal Poly leading, 9-5, in the second set, the Ducks again came out hot out of a timeout to score 12 points in 15 rallies to move ahead, 17-12, and force the Mustangs into using both of their timeouts. Cal Poly rallied to get within two, 20-18, before Oregon scored four straight and five of seven to take the game and a two-set lead. Agost enjoyed a huge set with five kills on five swings, including Oregon's final two points of the set.

Oregon erased an early 3-1 Cal Poly lead in the third with eight straight points, and the Ducks kept their foot on the gas en route to a 17-9 advantage. Cal Poly put together a couple of scoring runs to cut the lead to 22-19, but the Ducks scored three of the final four points to finish off the sweep.

Who Stood Out: Agost was terrific with 11 kills on 15 swings without an error, setting a new career-high for hitting percentage at .733. Willow Johnson put down 10 kills on .389 hitting with a career-high six blocks, Jolie Rasmussen had eight kills and 10 digs in her first extended action of the season and Ronika Stone had a career-high nine blocks along with two aces. Senior libero Alex Hojnar also added a pair of aces to go with seven digs.

Some sights from tonight's win, courtesy of @samwow55. #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/Y5zxWkk8zf
— Oregon Volleyball (@OregonVB) September 8, 2017

Block Party: The Ducks dominated on the block against the Mustangs, finishing with 13 blocks Cal Poly's four. Stone kicked off her huge night at the net with six first-set blocks, leading the Ducks to an impressive eight as a team in the opening set. Agost and Sumeet Gill each added four blocks of their own throughout the match.

Quotable: Head Coach Matt Ulmer
On tonight's match...
"We're so ready to go that we're over-ready. We have to do a better job of starting out in our game plan right away by executing and calming down. I love that when we're down, we come back. We're coming back every time, which is a nice habit to have. I'd rather finish strong than start strong."

On tonight's strong defense...
"I think we knew Cal Poly's tendencies pretty well, but I thought we just executed so much better. Coach Ron (Beick) did a great job coaching with our blocks, and you could see it was a change from last week to this week."

Notable: Oregon got gradually more efficient throughout the night, hitting .088 in the first set, .290 in the second and .560 in the final set … Oregon had six aces to Cal Poly's three, with Stone and Hojnar combining for four … Stone continues to be impressive in the service game; she now leads the Ducks with nine on the season … The Ducks are now 4-1 this season when winning the first set.

Up Next: The Ducks will wrap up the second day of the Nike Classic on Friday night with a top-25 matchup against No. 23 Wichita State at 8 p.m. PT. The Shockers will open the day against Duquesne at 11 a.m., and Cal Poly will face Duquesne at 6 p.m. prior to the Ducks' match with Wichita State.