Ducks Host No. 18 Indiana Friday at MKA

EUGENE, Ore. — The No. 11 Oregon volleyball team gets hits home weekend started Friday against 18^th-ranked Indiana. First serve is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Matthew Knight Arena. The Ducks are 14-2 overall and carry a 5-1 Big Ten record through the first three weeks of conference play.

The team will also host volleyball alumni—click HERE to let staff know you're coming—this weekend. The home weekend also includes Sunday's match against Rutgers (1 p.m., BTN). Tickets for all Oregon home matches are currently on sale.

Friday will double as the Ducks' ALZTogether match, a collegiate sports initiative that brings awareness to Alzheimer's and all other dementia.

Series History vs Indiana
Friday's match will be just the third all-time meeting between Oregon and Indiana; the teams have only played one another as Big Ten opponents. The teams split the previous two matches, each winning four-set matches on their respective home floors. Indiana associate head coach Rachel Morris (Oregon, 2010) was a setter for the Ducks during her collegiate career and was a member of back-to-back NCAA regional semifinalist teams.

Killing It
Oregon enters the weekend leading the Big Ten and ranked sixth nationally with 14.30 kills per set. The Ducks are the only Big Ten school with three players averaging more than three kills per set with Sjakkie Donkers (3.74 k/s), Valentina Vaulet (3.26) and Alanah Clemente (3.24). Oregon is also ninth in the NCAA with 13.28 assists per set.

Active Ace
Senior Valentina Vaulet leads all active NCAA Division I players with 181 career service aces, just ahead of Autumn Martinez-Robinson of George Mason (179) and Olivia Babcock of Pitt (178). Vaulet leads the team and ranks fourth in the Big Ten with 26 aces this season. She also enters the weekend 18 aces shy of reaching 100 during her career at Oregon.

PO(t)W
Sophomore opposite Alanah Clemente was recognized as the Big Ten Co-Player of the Week (Oct. 12) after a standout road trip against No. 22 Michigan State and Michigan. She accounted for 4.56 points per set, 4.00 kills per set while hitting .463 and 1.13 blocks per set on back-to-back nights. Clemente is the second UO player to earn Big Ten Player of the Week honors (Mimi Colyer, 2024).

Serving Streak
With her first of back-to-back aces in the first set at Michigan (Oct. 10), junior Dalia Virlan made it 10-consecutive matches with at least one service ace. She has 15 of her 18 aces this season in the recent hot streak from the back line which started Sept. 12 against UC Davis in Tempe, Ariz.

Freshman Spark
Freshman middle blocker Alaina Pollard came off the bench to put down a season-high six kills on eight errorless swings in Oregon's four-set win at No. 22 Michigan State (Oct. 9). She had the match-clinching kill in the fourth set and added a team-high four blocks against the Spartans.

Last Time Out
The Ducks saved a pair of set points to avoid a fifth set in their 25-17, 25-16, 20-25, 27-25 road victory over Michigan (Oct. 10). The result extended the team's winning streak to five, adding to its longest in Big Ten play since joining the league; it had been three through Oregon's first two years in the league.

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