Written Story by Ben Schoenfield
Today at Matthew Knight Arena the #6 Oregon Ducks (13-1, 3-0) faced off against the #7 Washington State Cougars (13-1, 3-0) at 12:00. The Ducks came in with a 20-match home winning streak. The Cougars are coming in on a 12-game winning streak.
In the first set the Cougars got off to a hot start and scored the first 10 points of the match. Washington State was capitalizing off of errors by the Oregon team, as well as being on point defensively with a lot of blocks. In the second half the set was played pretty close, after the first 10 points it was 15-14 for the rest of the set. Washington State won the first set 25-14.
In the second set the Ducks stabilized and won the second set, the set was a lot of back and forth with a few runs. Oregon recovered and turned around the kill to error ratio. The Ducks kept the Cougars streaks to a minimum. Oregon won the set 25-20, tying the match at 1 set each.
The third set was a thriller, it was a very back and forth set the entire time, there were 9 ties and 4 lead changes. Oregon had a chance to take the lead in terms of total sets 3 times. They were up 24-23, 25-24, and 26-25. This set nobody was able to just finish it out. Oregon at the beginning of the set was down both 10-5, and 14-8. So they were able to recover and take the lead in the set. The third set finished with a score of 29-27 with the Washington St. Cougars winning the set.
Lastly in the 4th set the Cougars looked to close out the match with a 3-1 match win. Oregon looked poised to take the set and force a 5th set. They did not give up the lead until WSU took the lead 24-23 looking at match point. Oregon allowed Washington State to score the last 6 points to win, 25-23.
Overall, looking at the rest of the season they need to keep their errors down and the opponents streaks to a minimum. Washington State handed Oregon their first conference loss and only their second loss of the season, and snapped Oregon’s home winning streak. Washington State won the match 3-1.
The Oregon Ducks next match is in Boulder, Colorado against the University of Colorado Buffaloes at 6:00 P.M. on Friday, October 6th. They will be back in Eugene on October 13th vs. UC Berkeley.
Audio Story by Griffin Bowes