Oregon Advances to Volleyball Sweet 16

Sonja Newcombe led Oregon with 22 kills on a .348 attacking percentage, and a season-high 26.0 points.

Senior Karen Waddington's block provided match point for Oregon. Photo courtesy: goducks.com

MANHATTAN, Kan. - Five times this season, the No. 13 Oregon volleyball team trailed an opponent by two games, and five times the Ducks were unable to come back.

Good thing this is the NCAA Tournament.

Oregon pieced together a valiant and inspiring comeback on the home floor of No. 9 seed Kansas State, and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in the program’s history with 3-2 (24-30, 20-30, 30-27, 36-34, 15-11) victory over the Wildcats at Ahearn Field House.

Serving specialist sophomore Amanda Westrick entered the fifth game, as head coach Jim Moore elected to use Bonney Lake, Wash., native’s strong serve. It proved to be a profitable plan, as the Ducks ran off three straight points to take a 13-9 lead. And it was only fitting that senior Karen Waddington provided match point with a solo stuff on 11th-ranked Kansas State’s last attempt.

"The players did great," Moore said after the match. "They showed that they had great character, and they've shown it all year. W've had and awful lot of adversity and it finally paid off. They were very, very good coming down the stretch."

Oregon (22-10) will now head to Stanford to play UCLA in the Sweet 16 on Friday, Dec. 7, with match time still to be decided. The Bruins knocked off Alabama A&M 3-0 in the first round and Clemson 3-1 in the second to head to Palo Alto.

Kansas State ends it season 23-9.

In game four, Oregon staved off elimination on three separate match points, as the score was tied at each point from 26-34. Kills from Gorana Maricic, Kristen Forristall and Sonja Newcombe the game in favor of the Ducks.

"They (Oregon players) willed it not to happen. They willed that win....eventually you have to get over the hump, and they did. So they just willed it to happen for our side."

Newcombe led Oregon with 22 kills on a .348 attacking percentage, and a season-high 26.0 points. The two-time Pac-10 honorable mention added a solo block and four block assists, while contributing 10 digs.

"...I didn't want to go home," Newcombe said. "We talked about emptying the tank, and I did my best to empty it as much as I could. I said I had a little more gas left for the fifth game. You could just feel the belief come back in everyone."

Junior Gorana Marcic added 18 kills, after being held to four in the first two games.

The Ducks hit .255 in the match, compared to Kansas State’s .314, but totaled 17.0 blocks and a match-high 74 digs, led by Katie Swoboda’s 17. In fact four Oregon players; Maricic (15), Nevena Djordjevic (11) and Newcombe (10) had double figures in kills.

Junior Kristen Forristall led Oregon with a season-high nine blocks, the most any Duck player has produced this season, while Waddington added seven. Forristall also matched her season high of nine kills, and set a new high with 13.5 points.

After having an off night against Missouri State in the first round, freshman Heather Meyers set a new season high with 19 kills, hitting a team-best .432.

Djordjevic, who partnered with Rachel Morris to run the offense, set a new season high with 46 assists. Morris' tally of 30 was also a season high.

Kansas State was led Roita Liliom’s match-high 27 kills (.400), as well as 16 from Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Natalya Korobkova. Libero Angie Lastra had a match-high 20 digs.

In the first game, Liliom put down the first two kills, giving the Wildcats a lead in game one they would never relinquish.

Oregon struggled as Maricic did not record her first kill until the 12-16 mark. The Ducks trailed by as many as six (16-22) after a Kansas State block. Led by Meyers, Oregon chipped away at the Wildcats’ large advantage, recording four straight points. Meyers had two kills and a block assist with Forristall, while Maricic added a kill as well to bring the score to 20-22, but Oregon would get no closer.

The second game (20-30) was more of the same, with Kansas State taking an early lead. Despite tie scores at 4-4 and 5-5, Oregon trailed the entire game. A three-point run brought the Ducks within 15-16, but the Wildcats ended the match on a 9-1 run.

After two games, Kansas State was hitting .437 compared to Oregon’s .210. The Ducks had 14 attacking errors and six service errors. The Wildcats had 10.5 blocks after two and 30 digs.

Newcombe led Oregon with nine kills at the break.

Oregon took its first lead of the match, 2-1, after a Kansas State attack error in the third game. The Ducks built on that lead, taking a five-point advantage at 14-9, after two Kansas State attacking errors and a block from Maricic and Enesi. But relentless, Kansas State climbed back into the game with five straight points to tie it at 14. As part of a 7-2 run, the Wildcats eventually took a 17-16 lead.

But finally Maricic began to breakdown the Wildcats defense. Held to just four kills in the first two games combined, she put down five in game three alone, including accounting for three of the Ducks’ last five points. A Newcombe strike was good for game point.

Source: goducks.com

Good job ducks! enter the elite 8, you deserve it, and most of all -you can do it! Go ducks!!!

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