A Balanced Offense Leads #16 Oregon To Sweep Over Arizona State

  0 Carly DeMarque | November 09th, 2017 | College - Women's Indoor, News, Pac 12

Match Results

  • #15 Oregon def. Arizona State 3-0, (25-17, 25-23, 25-22)
  • Oregon improves to 16-7, 9-6 Pac-12, ASU falls to 10-17, 0-15 Pac-12
  • Tempe, Arizona
  • Attendance: 3,800
  • Match Stats

Oregon sweeps the season series between Arizona State with a three-set victory over the Sun Devils. Oregon improves to 9-6 in Pac-12 play, with the Sun Devils continue to struggle this year with a 0-15 record as they are in a rebuilding year.

In all but two statistical categories, the Ducks prevailed over the Sun Devils significantly. Arizona State led Oregon in digs (48-35) and aces (5-4).

It was a balanced offense for the Ducks in the win, with Taylor Agost, Lindsey Vander Weide and Jolie Rasmussen each recording nine kills. Rasmussen also added a team-best nine digs. Maggie Scott let the Ducks with 22 assists while August Raskie pitched in another 18.

For the Sun Devils, Griere Hughes led the way with 11 kills while Halle Harker picked up a match-best 18 digs.

Oregon has just five more conference matches this season, with three at home. This week they were placed at #9 in the NCAA RPI and are hoping to earn a host bid for the early rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

Press Release

Courtesy of Oregon Athletics

The 16th-ranked Oregon volleyball team swept Arizona State for the second time this season on Thursday night, 25-17, 25-23, 25-22, in front of 3,800 fans in Wells Fargo Arena.

How it Happened: Arizona State (10-17, 0-15 Pac-12) took a 10-7 lead to open the match, but the Ducks (16-7, 9-6 Pac-12) used a 9-3 run to take the lead, 16-13, and then ripped off six straight points before finishing the set on a 9-2 run to win, 25-17. Jolie Rasmussen paced the Ducks with five kills in the frame, while Ronika Stone put down three and had two aces late to help UO pull away.

The Sun Devils started well again in the second, jumping out to an 11-6 lead, but the Ducks played their way back to a 16-16 tie, with head coach Matt Ulmersaving a couple points with a pair of successful challenges. Oregon called a timeout after ASU took a 22-20 lead with three straight points, and the Ducks responded by finishing the set on a 5-1 run to win, 25-23, and take a 2-0 lead into intermission.

Oregon got out to a 4-1 lead in the third set and led the entire way en route to a 25-22 win to complete the sweep. The Ducks used three 3-0 runs to gain separation before holding off a late ASU rally, and Taylor Agost caught fire with six kills to lead UO to a .410 hitting percentage in the set.

Who Stood Out: The Ducks finished the night hitting an even .300 as a team, and they really spread the attack around as five players finished with seven kills or more. Agost, Rasmussen and Lindsey Vander Weide each had nine kills to share the team lead, Arizona native Willow Johnson put down eight on .533 hitting and Stone finished with seven. Rasmussen (9) and Vander Weide (8) paced the Ducks in digs, and Stone finished with a team-best three aces and three blocks. Oregon tallied six blocks while holding the Sun Devils to .179 hitting.

What it Means: The Ducks bounced back from a deflating loss at No. 2 Stanford last weekend by doing what they were supposed to do against the Sun Devils, who are in rebuilding mode this season. With five conference matches remaining in the regular season, including three at home, Oregon is hoping to carry the momentum from Thursday’s win into a strong final push entering the postseason. Oregon came into the week at No. 9 in the NCAA RPI rankings and is hoping to earn a host bid in the early rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

Quotable: Matt Ulmer, Head Coach
On the match…
“I thought we passed the ball really well. I was proud of Lindsey (Vander Weide), she played a good offensive game and allowed other people to get involved. I thought we responded well after Stanford where we didn’t pass very well. It’s always nice to get a Pac-12 win on the road.”

On if this was a good first step towards a strong finish to the regular season…
“I felt like we were able to learn tonight, which is something we’ve struggled with this season. We were in a good mindset, we communicated well and it was a good team effort. Now we need to carry that over to Tucson on Sunday.”

Notable: Agost finished hitting .333, while Vander Weide ended at a .320 clip … The Ducks have now won six straight against ASU, and 10 straight in Tempe … Oregon is now 16-2 when leading in hitting percentage, 12-2 when leading in kills (45-34), 13-3 when leading in blocks (6-3) and 14-0 when its opponent hits worse than .200 … The Ducks picked up their 10th sweep of the season … Oregon improves to 4-4 on the road this season.

Up Next: The Ducks will wrap up their last true road trip of the season on Sunday at Arizona (11 a.m. PT, Pac-12 Live Stream).

Press Release

Courtesy of Arizona State Athletics

The Arizona State volleyball team (10-17, 0-15 Pac-12) fell to the No. 16 Oregon Ducks (16-7, 9-6 Pac-12) in three sets, 17-25, 23-25, 22-25, Thursday evening in Wells Fargo Arena.

“We had a really good second set,” said interim head coach Carlos Moreno. “In the Pac-12, we need to maintain overtime. We need to stay aggressive. We need to execute our game plan. We all need to do our jobs, every player has a job, I have a job to do too. We have to be great at it in order to win.”

Freshman Griere Hughes led the Sun Devils with 11 kills on .360 attacking, her 16th double-digit kills match of the season. Junior Carmen Unzue and freshman Megan Beedie added eight kills each. Sophomore Nicole Peterson recorded 28 assists.

Senior Halle Harker posted 18 digs on the evening, bringing her career total to 1,918. Ahead of Harker in the Sun Devil record book remains Pac-10/12 all-time digs leader Sydney Donahue (2004-07) with 2,385, and standout Stephanie Preach (2010-13) with 2,010.

For the Ducks, Taylor Agost, Lindsey Vander Weide and Jolie Rasmussen each recorded nine kills.

Up next, the Sun Devils host the Oregon State Beavers (15-7, 8-6 Pac-12) in the final home game of the 2017 season. The match tilts off at 7 p.m. MT in Wells Fargo Arena and will be livestreamed via TheSunDevils.com. The team will also honor the trio of Sun Devil seniors in Harker, Oluoma Okaro and Isabel Miller in a pre-game ceremony.

“It goes by so fast,” Moreno added about the seniors. “We are going to miss them, I’m going to miss them.”

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About Carly DeMarque

Carly DeMarque

Carly DeMarque has been involved with competitive volleyball for the majority of her life, playing competitively at the club and collegiate level for 15 years and coaching club for five. Now a retired Division I volleyball athlete out of McNeese State University, she continues her volleyball enthusiasm by stepping back into …

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