After being drubbed in Seattle on Halloween, Oregon volleyball was not looking for a very unlikely win in today’s match against #1 Nebraska. They were just looking to try and be competitive.
The unsurprising
result is that Oregon was swept by the Cornhuskers, 21-25, 20-25, 12-25.
In some respects, the Ducks were competitive, but some sort of moral victory was all that Oregon could hope to glean when facing the Huskers. Nebraska is – and was always going to be – on another level from this young Ducks team.
The Ducks started the first set with a slight lead before yielding their advantage to the Huskers. They kept pace, keeping up with Nebraska, and even had a tenuous 16-15 lead mid-set.
But, as has been the pattern for the Ducks, Oregon fell off at the end of the set, with Nebraska closing with a 7-3 run to take set 1.
Nebraska pulled to an early lead in set two, but the Ducks battled and kept pace. There were four lead changes and nine ties in the second set.
Oregon again could not close the set, and self-inflicted wounds at critical moments do not help.
The Ducks completely fell off in the third set. After a 1-1 tie, Oregon wasn’t remotely close in the final set.
Oregon’s play was not clean enough to take on a team like Nebraska. The Ducks committed 19 attack errors to just 7 by the Huskers. Oregon committed 13 service errors to 6 by Nebraska. The Huskers had the advantage in blocks, 9 to 3.
Oregon finished with .162 hitting against .405 for Nebraska.
The Ducks will have to take what they can from this match. No one has defeated Nebraska; in fact, the Huskers have won 40 straight sets. Oregon is only the fourth team to score 20+ points in two sets in the same match against Nebraska (the others being #4 Pitt, #12 Creighton, and #3 Kentucky).
Oregon comes back to Eugene this week, and on Thursday they will host UCLA at 7:00 pm PT. That match can be seen on FS1.
