Big Ten Road Trip Begins Thursday at Ohio State

EUGENE, Ore. – The No. 11 Oregon volleyball team, winning of 10 in a row, takes on its first Big Ten road trip this weekend. The Ducks face Ohio State and No. 3 Penn State starting Thursday in Columbus.

First serve of the Oregon-Ohio State match is scheduled for 5 p.m. (PT) on the Big Ten Network. Michelle McMahon and Audrey Flaugh will handle the play-by-play and analyst duties, respectively.

Series History vs Ohio State
Oregon and Ohio State met last season, a 3-1 neutral-site win for the Ducks during the non-conference slate. Oregon has won the past four against the Buckeyes, and owns a 5-1 lead in the all-time series. The teams last met in Columbus during the 2012 season, a five-set UO victory.

Series History vs Penn State
Oregon and Penn State have met seven times prior to Friday's meeting; PSU leads 4-3. The previous four meetings were part of the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge. The Ducks' last victory in the series was a 3-0 triumph in Eugene in 2021. In the last match between the two, the Nittany Lions registered a 3-2 win in Minneapolis.

Last Time Out
Oregon extended its winning streak to 10 with a four-set win over Indiana (Sept. 28) at Matthew Knight Arena. Mimi Colyer and Michelle Ohwobete each posted a double-double and the Ducks registered 11.0 total team blocks. Onye Ofoegbu joined Colyer and Ohwobete in double figures (10 kills) and also had seven blocks. The win gave Oregon a 2-0 start in Big Ten play.

How They Rank
The Ducks stay put at No. 11 in this week's AVCA poll after wins over Illinois and Indiana to start conference play. Collectively, Oregon ranks second nationally in blocks per set (3.14), ninth in opponent hitting percentage (.138) and 11th in hitting percentage (.291). Onye Ofoegbu enters this week's slate as the only plyaer in the NCAA among the top 10 in hitting percentage (.456, 10th) and blocks per set (1.46, eighth).

From the Outside
Junior OH Mimi Colyer had 17 kills while hitting .318 in the 3-1 win over Indiana (Sept. 28). It was her fourth outing of the season with at least 10 kills coupled with a .300 or better hitting percentage. Colyer has double-digit kills in 10 of the Ducks' 11 matches this season; in the one outlier, she played just one of three sets against Portland State (Sept. 18).

Over on Two
Redshirt freshman setter Cristin Cline was effectively aggressive during the opening weekend of Big Ten play. She tallied a career-high five kills against Illinois (Sept. 27) and matched that figure the next day against Indiana, hitting .600 (10-1-15) in the process. Cline averaged 10.14 assists/set, 1.71 digs/set and 1.43 kills/set last week.

That's 30 for Michelle
With her 12-kill, 12-dig effort against Indiana (Sept. 28), senior Michelle Ohwobete recorded the 30th double-double of her career and third this season. She had 27 of those at UCSB and is in her first season at Oregon. Through the first 11 matches of the year, Ohwobete is averaging 2.45 kills per set and 2.79 digs per set.

#ProDucks Unlimited
The fourth season of Athletes Unlimited Volleyball will feature four past Oregon standouts including Week One captain Brooke Nuneviller. In Monday's player draft, she picked former UO teammates Lindsey Vander Weide and Lauren Page to join her on Team Gold. Additionally, Willow Johnson will play for Team Orange during the league's first week.

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