The No. 11 Oregon Ducks defeated the No. 24 Washington Huskies on Sunday in a close match with a 3-2 win in five sets. It was back and forth in each set — each one won by single digits.
The Ducks started the first set slow. In Set 1, the Huskies jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but service errors by Washington brought Oregon back into it. Onye Ofoegbu and Michelle Ohwobete’s blocks gave the Ducks a 25-19 Set 1 victory.
With the Ducks leading the match 1-0, they started Set 2 on a better note but the Huskies bounced back. Many of the Huskies’ points were off of errors by the Ducks. Mimi Colyer and Ohwobete had back-to-back kills to cut the lead to two towards the end of the set. Kierstyn Barton would ultimately give Washington the 25-22 Set 2 win with kills and block assists.
Heading into the third set, it was all tied up at 1-1. The Huskies easily won Set 3 25-19, thanks to kills by Madi Endsley and Barton. With Washington up 2-1 in the match, the fourth and fifth sets were neck and neck. The fourth set was kill after kill. Many of Colyer’s 25 kills came in Set 4. Back-to-back kills by Colyer put the Ducks up five at 22-17 towards the end of the fourth.
With Oregon needing only three points to win the set, Colby Neal came in clutch with a kill and caused back-to-back errors to give the Ducks the 25-21 Set 4 victory.
Once again, it was all tied up at 2-2 heading into the fifth and final set. Colyer continued dominating in the last set. Three of the six Ducks’ kills were by Colyer. Consecutive kills by the Ducks gave them a 15-12 Set 5 win that would all in all give them the victory in the match over the Huskies.
Colyer explained what the game plan was. “Not hitting it right at them in the second/third of the court where they’re really good,” Colyer said. “They have people standing right there. They have blockers right there. For a little bit, we were hitting it right to the block.”
The Ducks move to 13-2 and 5-1 in Big Ten Conference play. The Ducks have a two-game road trip starting this weekend. On Friday, they will travel to Madison to face the Wisconsin Badgers before traveling to Iowa City on Sunday to face the Iowa Hawkeyes.
The Huskies move to 13-3 and 3-3 in Big Ten Conference play. The Huskies continue their road trip, heading to Michigan next. On Friday, they head to Ann Arbor to face the Michigan Wolverines. On Sunday, they remain in Michigan and travel to East Lansing to face the Michigan State Spartans.