by Ryan Oppenheimer

Oregon’s volleyball team (#12 in AVCA poll, 10-2 overall, 4-0 conf) has a busy weekend ahead of them, with road matchups against Washington State (10-5, 2-2) on Friday at 7pm PT and Washington (#18, 11-3, 3-1) on Sunday at 4pm PT. The Ducks’ incredible six-game winning streak started on September 17 with a sweep over South Carolina. Now, following consecutive home sweeps of #8 Stanford and both Arizona schools, they show no signs of slowing down. Senior Brooke Nuneviller and freshman Mimi Colyer both boast top 7 kills/set numbers in the conference. The Ducks as a unit lead the Pac-12 in assists per set and fewest errors.

The upcoming road trip will be a crucial midseason test, though. Wazzu has served 100 aces in 54 sets — good for 2nd in the conference — and is undefeated in Pullman so far. They are led by senior middle blocker Magda Jehlarova, who was named Pac-12 defensive player of the week. Huskies setter Ella May Powell and outside hitter Claire Hoffman spearhead a Washington squad who leads the conference in hitting percentage. Both schools are coming off recent losses to Stanford and are hungry to redeem themselves by knocking off a similarly high-ranked opponent in Oregon.

Oregon is bound to face some adversity at some point during this streak, and they could very well find themselves locked in tight matches on both Friday and Sunday. A 2-0 weekend would most likely land them a top 10 AVCA ranking and would make the idea of a long postseason run look even more realistic.

Tune in to the matches at KWVA 88.1 FM.