Oregon volleyball picked up an important road win on Saturday and defeated #15 Minnesota in four sets, 25-20, 25-20, 23-25, 27-25.
The match marked the return of Alanah Clemente back to the starting lineup and back to form. Clemente’s presence was the piece that was missing in Oregon’s close loss to Wisconsin on Thursday. With the score tied 15-15 in the first set, Clemente delivered
the kill that gave Oregon the lead – a lead that the Ducks would keep to take set 1.
In set 2, the Ducks carried a 4-0 run to lead early in the set, but the Gophers battled back to a 12-12 tie.
Oregon followed with a 5-0 run that would propel them to the set 2 win.
Set 3 was characterized by Oregon in the middle of the set catching up to tie the set after Minnesota would jump ahead. This happened six times from a 14-14 tie, and at 23-23 the Gophers jumped ahead again to take the set.
The Ducks took an early lead in set 4 with Sjakkie Donkers throwing down the heat.
Oregon held a commanding seven point lead in the middle of the set, but Minnesota battled and did not give up, playing to a 24-24 tie with a 3-0 run.
An incredible rally by the Ducks, however, catapulted Oregon to the match victory.
The Golden Gophers hit .220 on the match and were led by Kelly Kinney with 16 kills and Mckenna Wucherer with 15 kills. Minnesota finished with 12 blocks and probably did not perform as well as they would have liked in the serving game, with 9 aces and 10 errors.
Oregon hit .291 on the night and tied their season-high 11 blocks. The Ducks’ service game was excellent and where it needed to be against a ranked opponent, with 7 service aces and only 5 service errors. Kudos to Oregon on their service game.
Sjakkie Donkers was great all weekend, both in the match against Wisconsin and again against Minnesota on Saturday. Donkers had a double-double with 18 kills and 15 digs while hitting .486.
Alanah Clemente’s return was pivotal in this match. Clemente also had a double-double with 19 kills and 11 digs, and her five blocks were a component that the Ducks very much missed in the Wisconsin match.
Dalia Vîrlan had 7 kills, 3 blocks, and led the team with 3 service aces.
Iva Šucurovic led Oregon with seven blocks, all solo. Maila Ribeiro finished with 41 assists, and Reese Sheppard led the Ducks with 20 digs.
You can view extended highlights here:
Clemente’s return to the lineup was just what Oregon needed, and shows how important her presence is to Oregon’s game. Donkers has also pulled ahead as a leader that’s firing on all cylinders and contributing in all facets of Oregon’s game.
With the win, Oregon volleyball (10-2, 1-1 Big-10) is moving up the rankings. They did exactly what they needed to do in getting a road split, and now return to Matthew Knight Arena this coming weekend for matches against #10 Purdue on Friday and an unranked Illinois team that is 10-3 and just defeated #15 Minnesota and #23 USC this last weekend. Both will be exciting matches and the picture will continue to clear on how good this Oregon team is as we head further into Big Ten play.
