Oregon to Play Missouri State in NCAA Tourney First Round

This is the second consecutive year Oregon has been selected for the NCAA Tournament.

Oregon advances to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. Photo courtesy: goducks.com

EUGENE, Ore. - The University of Oregon volleyball team, currently ranked 13th in the nation, will travel to Manhattan, Kan., for the first and second rounds of the 2007 NCAA Tournament, hosted by Kansas State at Ahearn Field House.

The Ducks will face Missouri State (25-7) of the Missouri Valley Conference in Friday’s first round with the start time scheduled for 3:30 p.m. PST, and if victorious, would move on Saturday to play the winner of Friday’s 5:30 p.m. PST match between No. 9 seed Kansas State (22-8) and Tulsa (27-8).

Saturday’s match for Friday’s victors is scheduled for a 5 p.m. PST start.

It will be the first meeting between the Oregon and Missouri State volleyball programs. Kansas State and the Ducks have squared off just once, in 1996, with the Wildcats winning 3-0. Current Oregon head coach Jim Moore was Kansas State's head coach at that time.

Moore will return to Manhattan after coaching the Wildcats from 1994-96. In three years with Kansas State, he was 61-34 and made two postseason appearances in the NCAA Tournament.

This is the second consecutive year Oregon has been selected for the NCAA Tournament, after making its first appearance since 1989 just a year ago.

The Ducks’ 20 overall wins and nine wins in the Pac-10 were the team’s best marks since 1989 (21-9, 10-8). In the three seasons prior to Moore’s arrival, Oregon amassed a 24-64 record, and registered just two Pac-10 wins. Since Moore took over the reins in 2005, the Ducks’ volleyball program has gone 49-40, won 17 Pac-10 matches, and reached the postseason twice.

The 2007 season was littered with record-breaking moments for Oregon. The Ducks defeated two top-10 opponents on back-to-back nights for the first time ever; with a 3-1 victory over then No. 6 USC (Nov. 8) and a three-game sweep of UCLA (Nov. 9), when the Bruins were ranked ninth in the nation.

Oregon head coach Jim Moore picked up his 400th career victory with a 3-1 victory over Oregon State on Nov. 16, while junior libero Katie Swoboda eclipsed the all-time digs record in that match as well. The junior currently holds the record with 1,536.

Junior Gorana Maricic was named National Player of the Week on Nov. 12, after leading Oregon to its victories over USC and UCLA. She was the first Duck to receive the honor in the history of the volleyball program. The junior outside hitter also set two new single-season records with 602.0 total points and an average of 5.44 kills per game. Both marks also lead the Pac-10 this year.

Oregon is one of six Pac-10 teams to advance to the tournament. In fact, Oregon is seeded in the Stanford Regional. If the Ducks were to move out of the first and second rounds, they would play Dec. 7-8 in Stanford, Calif. The Cardinal (27-2) has the No. 1 seed in the tournament. UCLA (20-10) obtained the No. 8 seed and could possibly be an opponent of the Ducks in the regionals if the Bruins were also able to advance out of the second round.

USC (25-4), the tournament’s No. 5 seed, is in the Gainsville Regional, while Washington is the sixth seed in the tournament in the University Park Regional. Cal, the tournament’s No. 10 seed, is in the Madison Regional. Oregon and Cal are the only two Pac-10 teams in the tournament not hosting the first and second rounds.

Story continues below

The Final Four is being held at ARCO Arena, and hosted by Sacramento State. The semifinals are Dec. 13 and the final will be held on Dec. 15.

Last year Oregon suffered a 3-0 loss to 12th-ranked in the first round of the tournament in Long Beach, Calif.

The defending champion Nebraska Cornhuskers (27-1) are the tournament’s No. 2 seed in the Madison Regional.

While the volleyball team will play Missouri State in Manhattan on Friday in the first round, the Oregon men’s basketball team will be returning from its very own trip to Kansas State. The Ducks and Wildcats meet up in men’s basketball action this Thursday.
Source: goducks.com

Adding comments to these stories has been disabled. View the current sports stories Salem-News Sports