Match Stats
- Oregon defeats Colorado 3-1 (25-14, 21-25, 25-22, 25-21)
- Oregon improves to 14-5
- Colorado falls to 12-8
Press Releases
Oregon:
BOULDER, Colo. – The 23rd-ranked Oregon volleyball team defeated Colorado in four sets, 25-14, 21-25, 25-22, 25-21, behind big individual performances from Lauren Page andLindsey Vander Weide on Saturday night at the Coors Event Center.
How It Happened: Searching for its second road conference win in as many nights and trying to keep pace in a loaded Pac-12, Oregon (14-5, 7-3 Pac-12) jumped on Colorado (12-8, 4-6 Pac-12) in the first set before the Buffaloes rallied to win the second and send it to the intermission tied at 1-1. The Ducks outlasted the Buffaloes in the third set before scoring seven of the final eight points in the fourth to take the match and remain perfect on the road this season.
It was a career-night for Page, who recorded her first double-double while setting career-highs in both kills (12) and blocks (12), while tying her career-high with a .667 hitting percentage. Vander Weide also had an impressive night, recording her team-best ninth double-double with 12 kills and 15 digs while setting a career-high with eight blocks. The Ducks finished with a season-high 17 blocks to the Buffaloes’ five.August Raskie also contributed a double-double, her fourth, with 21 assists and 14 digs, and Amanda Benson led all players with 22 digs. Jolie Rasmussen had 10 kills andRonika Stone added five kills, two blocks and two aces. The Ducks outhit the Buffaloes, .247 to .153.
Set 1: Looking to carry over the momentum from their dramatic five-set win at No. 20 Utah on Friday night, the Ducks jumped on the Buffaloes with a 5-1 run to open the match. Colorado would get as close as four points at 11-7 before Oregon began to ran away with the opening set. The Buffaloes scored consecutive points just once the remainder of the set as the Ducks rolled to a 25-14 win, outhitting Colorado .483 to .118. Rasmussen led the way for the Ducks with five kills on eight swings without an error (.625), Vander Weide dug five balls and Page added two kills and two blocks as the Ducks outhit the Buffaloes, .483 to .118. Oregon recorded an 86-percent (13-15) sideout mark during the set.
Set 2: The second set was more evenly matched from the start, as the two teams played to an 11-11 tie before the Buffaloes ripped off four straight points to go up 15-11 and force Oregon into a timeout. Colorado went on another run out of the break, scoring four of seven to take a 19-14 lead and prompt Oregon into it’s second timeout after an 8-3 stretch. The Ducks would get as close as 22-20 with a 6-2 run before the Buffaloes closed it out, 25-21, to tie the match at intermission. Vander Weide led the Ducks with four kills and five digs, Benson dug six balls and Page had three blocks.
Set 3: The Ducks started strong out of the intermission, earning leads of 11-5 and 17-8 and looking as though they would run away with the set. A 6-2 Colorado run forced Oregon into a timeout with its lead trimmed to 19-14, and the Buffaloes scored four of the next six out of the break to get within three, 21-18. The Ducks took their second timeout after Colorado cut the lead to two, 22-20, but scored three of the next five points to take the set and a 2-1 lead in the match. The third set was the big one for Page, who put down five kills on six swings and recorded five blocks while also adding three digs. The Ducks finished the set with eight total blocks, and Benson finished the set with an impressive 10 digs.
Set 4: Colorado started well in the fourth, getting out to a 12-8 lead on the Ducks. Oregon was able to play its way to an 18-18 tie and noticeably was gathering momentum for the final stretch. After two Colorado points put the Buffaloes up 20-18, the Ducks ripped off a 7-1 run to put the set and the match away. Kacey Nadyprovided a spark in the fourth set to lead the Ducks with five kills on seven swings, Page put down three kills with two blocks and Brooke Van Sickle added an ace off the bench. The Ducks hit .314 and had a sideout percentage of 76 (16-21) in the final game.
Page’s Huge Night: The career-night for Page also moved things around in the Oregon record book. Her 12 block assists are tied for the third-most in UO single-match history, and her 12 total blocks are tied for 10th-most. The last time a Duck finished with double-digit blocks was Dec. 4, 2014, when Serena Warner had 13 andMartenne Bettendorf finished with 10 against Santa Clara.
What It Means: Trying to keep pace in a crowded Pac-12 race, the Ducks improved to 7-3 in conference play and are just a half game back of the first-place Washington Huskies, who play Arizona tomorrow morning. After an emotional win over Utah on Friday, the Ducks improved to a perfect 5-0 on the road with consecutive conference road victories. The Ducks entered the week at No. 25 in the NCAA RPI rankings, and should get a boost both there and in the AVCA poll after two road Pac-12 wins in as many nights.
One noticeable improvement for the Ducks on Saturday night was in the serving game, where they had three aces and only three errors after committing at least seven service errors in each of the last seven matches.
Up Next: Oregon will now return home for two matches at Matthew Knight Arena, where it has played 14 of its 19 matches this season. The Ducks will host Arizona on Friday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m. and Arizona State on Sunday, Oct. 30, at 11 a.m. Friday’s match against the Wildcats will be streamed live on Twitter through Pac-12 Plus.
Colorado:
BOULDER — Sophomore Alexa Smith recorded 14 kills and 14 digs for her tenth double-double this season but it wasn’t enough as Colorado fell 3-1 to No. 23 Oregon (25-14, 21-25, 25-22, 25-21) on Saturday night at Coors Event Center. With the loss the Buffs finished the first half of the Pac-12 schedule with a 4-6 record, 12-8 overall, while the Ducks are 7-3 in league play, 14-5 overall.
WHAT HAPPENED: Smith hit .382 to lead the Buffs with only one error on 32 attacks. She recorded a team best 16.0 points with an additional ace and two block assists.
Another Buff who had a good night was junior Gabby Simpson, who tallied her fifth triple-double of the season. Simpson had 11 kills, 20 assists and 13 dig in the effort. In total, this was her sixth career triple-double which ranks second in CU history behind Elizabeth Gower (10).
SET 1: Oregon took the lead early in the first set, taking a five-point advantage (7-2), which forced the Buffs into their first timeout. Though the Buffs tried to get back into the set, UO powered through, finishing 25-14.
SET 2: The Buffs and Ducks exchanged points early in the second set. CU’s first time leading in the match came at the midway mark when they pulled two points clear from UO (10-8). From there the Buffs looked like a different team than the first set. This time the Buffs were fighting for the victory, holding off any rallying attempts from Oregon. CU took the second set 25-21 to even the match.
SET 3: Oregon jumped to an 11-5 lead early in the third set. The Buffs were able to rally within two points of the Ducks late in the set at 24-22, however UO won the next point to win the set (25-22).
SET 4: The Buffs took an early 6-2 lead in the fourth set before the Ducks responded. CU kept its momentum going while UO rallied to cut the Buffs’ lead. After tying the score at 21 points each, Oregon pulled ahead and recorded four straight points to defeat the Buffs 25-21.
TEAM STATISTICS: The Buffs hit .153 with 50 kills and 24 errors on 170 attacks, while Oregon hit .247 with 62 kills and 22 errors on 162 attacks. CU recorded 47 assists to UO’s 59. The Ducks out-dug the Buffs 81-63. CU had 5.0 blocks while UO posted 17.0. Both teams had three aces each.
NOTEABLE: The Buffs are now 12-8, 4-6 in the Pac-12… CU is 8-3 at home this season…Oregon is now 14-5, 6-3 in the Pac-12…Oregon leads the all-time series against CU 11-3…Gabby Simpson‘s five triple-doubles this season is second on CU’s single season chart…Elizabeth Gower owns the single season record with six triple-doubles.
NEXT UP: Colorado will travel to Los Angeles to take on UCLA on October 28 and USC on October 29.
QUOTABLE:
Jesse Mahoney, head coach
On What Happened In The Match Against Oregon
“Well they were very good. They put a lot of pressure on offensively with the speed and the tempo of what they do. They run a lot of crossing patterns and make you defend the full 30 feet of the net. They were siding out very well. We ran into some lulls offensively. We hit the ball into the block. They had 17 blocks, which is concerning that we couldn’t score from the middle or right side very well. Lex had a very nice match offensively, but outside of that we didn’t have anyone who could generate points. I always felt that we were playing from behind.”
On How The Team Is Going To Go Into The Next Few Matches Against Ranked Opponents
“Well, that’s the world we live in. We’re going to play great teams every night. We’re aware of that. We came out very slow tonight, which was unfortunate that we didn’t give ourselves the opportunity to compete in that first set. It was a fairly even match after that. We have to work on being ready to play and following our game plan, committing to it, and being able to adjust out of that. This week we’ll work on some of our system stuff because we were exceptionally poor in that tonight and we’ll be out of systems a lot against good teams because they create those situations.
Alexa Smith, Outside Hitter
On How Oregon Having 17 Blocks Affected The Team
“Obviously they’re a good team. They’re a good blocking team. They were more ahead of the play than we were and they saw what was coming. It was hard to work around that once we got into lulls.”
On What The Team Can Take From Tonight To Help With A Strong Schedule Coming Up
“We started off slow and that kind of set the mood for the game. Obviously we turned it around and put our foot on the pedal but it was a little bit too late. I think going down the line that’s something we need to learn from and start out stronger in these matches.”
On Having Seven Kills In The Second Set
“The people who were in the front row of me were drawing the blocks away from me so that helped me a lot. The centers were getting on tempo so that was really helpful too.”
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