After getting dominantly swept all the way across the country in State College, PA, the No. 11 Ducks (12-2, 4-1 BIG) entered another ranked matchup reeling. 

It turned out that this was just what Oregon needed. The Ducks played three outstanding sets (25-18, 27-25, 25-19) to sweep the No. 16 USC Trojans (11-4, 3-2 BIG). 

It wasn’t exceptionally dominant or stat-heavy, but it was a great team win that required astute defense and a group effort on offense to take a top-25 sweep into Oregon’s third-straight ranked matchup on Sunday.  

The first set lived up to the electric matchup that this always promised to be. It was back and forth, bodies on both sides were flying and each team refused to let the ball hit the ground. 

The Ducks went on a 3-0 run to take a 7-4 lead, but the Trojans came charging back with a 4-0 run of their own to take an 8-7 lead. As both sets of middle blockers remained concrete throughout the beginning of the set, each team needed to get this game onto their front foot. 

Due to USC’s defensive focus on Oregon’s star Mimi Colyer, the game flowed through everyone else — most notably Michelle Ohwobete who racked up three of her eight kills in the opening set.

“[Michelle] was really cautious the first set-and-a-half. She was our best passer, statistically, for the second match in a row, and she was doing everything,” head coach Matt Ulmer said. 

Colyer eventually got hers, however, and tallied five of her whopping 17 kills in the first set. 

“Staying aggressive, which is a big thing not just for me, but for everyone. Going in with an attack mindset and then seeing what you’re given with the set, the block and the defense,” Colyer said. “I tried to stay as aggressive as I could and I tried to throw good shots when I saw it.”

Every time the Ducks gained any foothold, the Trojans came right back — and vice versa. 

USC called a timeout down 20-18 after Oregon strung together some effective volleyball that forced Trojan errors and opened up the Ducks’ offense. 

That timeout did nothing to help matters, as the Ducks carried on and ended the set on a 7-0 run behind excellent defense and a takeover by Colyer, who was responsible for four of the seven points in the run (three kills, one block). 

The Ducks looked tremendously more comfortable at the start of the second set, as each dig or pass looked easy and routine. Setter Cristin Cline distributed at an elite level, and once Colyer got going, there was no stopping her. 

Cline assisted 33 times and had five digs, and her selfless play elevated all of her teammates. 

“There’s a lot of pressure on [Cline] to succeed as the quarterback without a ton of experience, but she’s gaining it. The big thing for her is set choices, and tonight, for the most part, she made really good choices,” Ulmer said. 

However, USC hung around despite the Ducks’ free-flowing offense, and did just enough to force errors and stay in the match. 

Oregon found Colyer much more as the set continued, and her stats reflected that. She duplicated her first set total of five when the score was 14-13 Ducks in the second set. 

Once again, the set became a true back-and-forth battle. Neither team could generate enough offense to take a firm grip of the game towards the end of the set, which made this just another game of “Who messes up first?”

That answer became evident quite quickly — no one. 

Each team saw spurts of positive volleyball, but couldn’t string together two points in a row to win the game. It went all the way to a 25-25 tie before the Ducks finally converted on a powerful spike from Onye Ofoegbu to take the set 27-25 and put Oregon in position to sweep. 

“I thought we had really important execution at the end of that second set. In that second set, I feel like we let a few points go…and that got them that lead,” Ulmer said. “So I thought we walked back down to our game plan pretty well.”

The back-and-forth nature of this match carried into the third set, but at a mid-point in the set, it seemed as if USC could take one off the Ducks. It definitely looked like USC’s set to lose when the Trojans used a 4-0 run to take a 13-11 lead in the set, which forced an Oregon timeout.

That timeout did wonders for the Ducks, as they subsequently took a dominant 11-2 run to firmly take the lead 22-15 and begin to end this match on Oregon’s terms. 

The Ducks eased their way into an excellent sweep of a tough USC squad. The last set ended 25-19, with a smashing hit from Ofoegbu to finish off the Trojans. 

Oregon comes back to Matthew Knight Arena at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday to take on No. 24 Washington.