Oregon’s final road trip of the regular season hasn’t worked out the way the Ducks wanted.
Before leaving for Los Angeles last week for a four-game road trip, they were 6-0 on the road. Since then, they have lost twice, once to No. 8 UCLA and the second to No. 12 Stanford.
But on Friday, the Ducks travelled to Corvallis to face Oregon State, a team that the Ducks had previously swept this season during the opening game of conference play. Their road luck changed as they defeated the Beavs 3-1.
The game didn’t start well for the Ducks. The Beavers tallied seven of their nine total blocks during the first set, while the Ducks had five. However, Oregon continued to block, adding six more throughout the game with Lauren Page leading the team with seven.
During the first set, both teams traded off multiple streaks that tallied at least three points. In fact, there were five of these streaks in the first set alone. In the end, OSU edged out Oregon 25-23.
Oregon then caught fire between the first and second sets.
The Ducks tallied 11 kills in the first set, but in the three that followed, they put down 16 kills with four players reaching more than 10 kills, led by Jolie Rasmussen with 12. Though the Ducks hit .051 in the first set, they hit above .350 in the subsequent sets.
After allowing the Beavers to take the first two points of the set, the Ducks went on a four-point streak filled with three kills, two from Ronika Stone and a service ace. The streak was only broken up when Lindsey Vander Weide’s serve went out of bounds, but the Ducks still weren’t done. They went on another streak, five points, and then another after that for four, giving them a 13-5 lead.
The early lead allowed Oregon to relax throughout the second set. Oregon State never regained the lead and the Ducks won 25-19.
The third set started the same way with Oregon State putting down the first couple of points before Oregon began stringing points together for an early lead, 11-4. Four times during the set, the Ducks were able to go on four-point streaks, one during which Taylor Agost had all four kills, and the visitors were easily able to defeat OSU 25-13.
In the fourth set, OSU took a lead. It was all Oregon as the team beat the Beavers 25-18.
Oregon will now wait for Sunday’s NCAA Tournament selection show for its postseason fate.
Follow Hannah Bonnie on Twitter @hbonnie03
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