Win Streak At Eight After Rivalry Sweep

Sunday, September 22

1:00 PM

University of Oregon

8-1,0-0Big Ten

Oregon State

2-8,0-0WCC

Oregon St.

Oregon

Photo by: Rob Moseley/GoDucks.com

09/22/24 | Women's Volleyball

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The Oregon volleyball team opens Big Ten play at home this upcoming week after sweeping OSU on Sunday.

By: Rob Moseley

EUGENE, Ore. — The Oregon volleyball team maintained momentum and provided a milestone win for its head coach Sunday at Matthew Knight Arena.

The 12th-ranked Ducks will enter the start of Big Ten Conference play this week on an eight-match win streak after sweeping Oregon State in a nonconference match before a season-high home crowd of 3,207 on Sunday. Oregon's 25-17, 25-15, 25-13 win saw the Ducks hit .351 while holding OSU to .000, providing career win No. 150 for head coach Matt Ulmer.

"I thought it was our most complete match of the year," said Ulmer, who is now 150-70 in his eighth season as Oregon's head coach. "I thought we were very consistent throughout."

The Ducks (8-1) posted their fifth sweep of this winning streak, and their second of the week after a win Wednesday at Portland State. But Sunday's performance was much more to the liking of Ulmer.

"We were really sloppy against Portland State," Ulmer said. "They all knew that it wasn't going to be a fun practice on Friday; they said, 'We are anticipating this not being a fun practice, and we're ready for the challenge,' which was great. And they responded well, and I thought they saw really immediate results today from that."

How It Happened: Oregon's balance was on display from the start. Noemie Glover had four kills while Onye Ofoegbu and Michelle Ohwobete had three each in the opening set, which saw the Ducks hit .433. Oregon stormed out of the gates by scoring the first eight points of the match, with Daley McClellan serving throughout. OSU got back within five points at a couple of moments later in the set, but the Ducks won it 25-17 on a kill from Glover.

"I think the big thing for us is consistency," Glover said. "I think we did a really good job in all areas, were really well-rounded. We've been working a lot in practice on just kind of feeling ourselves on the court, and knowing that we can do these things. So I think that we did a really good of executing."

Set two was more competitive, and the Beavers had a 6-4 lead in the early going. The Ducks captured momentum behind the serve of Maya De Los Reyes, scoring six straight times to lead 10-6. Junior Mimi Colyer, who finished the match with a double-double — a team-high 10 kills with 11 digs — got going in set two with five kills, four of those coming over the course of Oregon's last eight points in the set.

The third set saw Oregon hold OSU to negative-.029 hitting. Glover assisted on four blocks and Ofoegbu assisted on three in the set, as the Ducks posted 5.5 total team blocks in the set to reach 15 in the match. Glover finished the match with 10 block assists, Ofoegbu had seven and Colby Neal added five.

"We work on blocking a lot in our gym — a lot," Ofoegbu said. "And working on reading and just being smart. So I feel like that helped a lot for tonight. But it's a lot of work and a lot of practice."

Oregon led 13-2 in the set, and later 17-4. The comfortable lead allowed Ulmer to get some invaluable rivalry match experience for some younger Ducks, with freshmen Mia Tvrdy and Bella Gamache on the floor with redshirt freshmen Cline and Sophie Gregoire by the end of the match. Redshirt freshman Isabel Patterson also played in the third set.

Up Next: The Ducks host Illinois on Friday (7:30 p.m., FS1).