EUGENE, Ore. - After being named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week for the second time this season, Oregon Women’s Volleyball (15-12, 6-11 Big Ten) breakout freshman star Alanah Clemente continued her dominance on the court against the No. 16 USC Trojans (21-6, 12-5 Big Ten) in a four set defeat (33-31, 26-28, 26-28, 19-25).
“I thought we did a great job and we battled,” Oregon head coach Trent Kersten said. “We’re a better team than we were a month ago.”
Coming off the upset victory over No. 9 Purdue and a career high in kills, Clemente got off to a hot start, nailing a service ace on her first serve of the match. The Big Ten Conference leader in service aces would go on to record two total aces in the match, along with coming just one kill short of tying her career high, recording 24 total kills on the night.
After falling behind early, attacking errors from USC allowed Oregon to keep it close throughout the first set and send it well past the 25 points required to win the set. After four ties and 14 lead changes, the Ducks rallied to pull away off a 3-0 scoring run, with Clemente recording a kill down on set point and Vaulet getting back-to-back kills, to win the first set 33-31.
The second set was as back and forth as the first, with 18 ties and 10 lead changes. A 3-0 scoring run led by Clemente, providing a block and a kill late in the set, allowed the Ducks to pull away, but a late surge by USC allowed the Trojans to stay in it and force the set beyond 25 points again. However, miscues from Oregon allowed the Trojans to take the second set 28-26.
Clemente started the third set with a block to help Oregon begin the set on a 5-1 scoring run. However, mistakes by the Ducks allowed USC to catch up and create another back-and-forth set. While the set had significantly fewer ties and lead changes, with 10 ties and seven lead changes respectively, the set still went beyond the 25-point mark for the third time on the night, with the Trojans making a late surge to take the set 28-26.
As the clock ticked past 9:30 p.m. on a weeknight, the students stayed up and out as the fourth set marched on. USC opened the set on a 5-1 run and never looked back, as the long night started to catch up to the Ducks. After taking the second and third sets with a worse hitting percentage compared to Oregon, USC hit 0.286 percent en route to a dominant fourth set showing, taking the fourth set 25-19, and winning the match after dropping the first set.
Despite the loss, Clemente’s performance showed why she is the Big Ten Freshman of the Week. Picking up 24 kills and hitting 0.245 percent on the attacking front, Clemente was a big reason why the Ducks forced the Trojans to go beyond the necessary 25 points needed to win a set multiple times tonight.
“She’s silly good and she’s not even close to where she’s gonna be next year, and I’m so excited for it,” Kersten said about Clemente. “Her development and for her to have experience and for her to go through this, what a cool opportunity for her to make this splash in the Big Ten.”
Clemente and the rest of the Ducks return to Kilkenny Court on Nov. 22 for the final home match of the season against the Michigan Wolverines, with first serve set for 6:00 p.m., and look to move out of the bubble and into the field of making the NCAA postseason tournament.
“Let’s turn the bubble into a bubble bath,” Kersten said.