Following their tough 0-2 VERT challenge against two top-three foes, no. 18 Oregon Volleyball got back to winning ways early this week against Portland State, and the momentum hasn’t stopped yet. The Ducks crushed Utah Valley and Long Beach State on Friday, Aug. 31, winning the former afternoon match 25-16, 25-23, and 25-12 before sweeping the latter match as well in 25-14, 25-17, and 25-18 fashion. The Ducks’ defense was impenetrable all day long, holding their opponents to a combined .093 hitting percentage. Meanwhile, head coach Matt Ulmer, senior middle blocker Sumeet Gill, and senior setter August Raskie all saw big nights Ulmer picked up his first head coaching victory over his previous team; the 2nd-year head coach for the Ducks was previously an assistant coach at LBSU for seven years, five of those full-time. Gill put up a gaudy second-match stat line, going 12 for 19 with no errors in setting a career high for kills. For Raskie, the wins propelled her to 10th on UO’s all-time assist leaderboard; Raskie now stands with 1610 assists after racking up 73 on the day. Oregon is now over .500 on the year, standing at 3-2 with one match left in the Oregon Classic. If Oregon beats Arkansas-Pine Bluff (0-5) on Saturday, they will be crowned champions of the tournament

MATCH STORY (by Matt Tyra)

POSTMATCH AUDIO

Head Coach Matt Ulmer and Middle Blocker Sumeet Gill

August Raskie on the Postmatch Show