Oregon Home For Pair of Pivotal Matches

The Ducks two Pac-10 wins thus far are the most since the 2000 season.

Photo: University of Oregon

EUGENE - The Ducks (12-3, 2-3 Pac-10) host the Arizona Schools this week at McArthur Court with matches against the ASU Sun Devils on Thursday and Arizona Wildcats on Friday.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: Oregon had another successful week, splitting a pair of matches on its first Pac-10 road trip of 2006. The Ducks took No. 5 Washington to four games in a 3-1 setback on Friday before sweeping Washington State the following night.

ABOUT THE DUCKS: The Oregon volleyball team welcomes seven newcomers and returns six players from last season’s squad, which finished 12-18 overall, 1-17 in the Pac-10 Conference. Among the returnees are SO OH Mira Djuric, a Pac-10 All-Freshman team member in 2005, and SO L Katie Swoboda, who earned honorable mention Pac-10 All-Freshman status.

HEAD COACH JIM MOORE: Oregon head coach Jim Moore is in his second season in Eugene and 18th overall as a collegiate head coach. In his inaugural campaign at UO, Moore led the Ducks to their highest win total (12) and winning percentage (.400) in 14 seasons. Moore has compiled an overall mark of 376-177 (.680) during a career that has also included stops at Northern Michigan, Kansas State, Texas and Chico State. His 1993 Northern Michigan team won the NCAA II National Championship.

SCOUTING ARIZONA STATE: The Sun Devils (9-7, 1-4) suffered two home losses last week, falling to USC in five games before getting swept by UCLA. Overall, ASU has dropped four straight (all against teams ranked in the top seven) after opening Pac-10 play with a 3-1 victory at Arizona. SR OH Nicole Morton leads with Wildcats in kills (3.43 per game), ranks third in digs (2.40) and fourth in blocks (0.72). JR MB Staci Smith, a Gresham, Ore., product, tops the Devils in hitting percentage (.330) and ranks fourth in kills (1.73). JR L Sydney Donahue leads the Pac-10 in digs at 6.66 per game. ASU is coached by fourth-year head man Brad Saindon, who has a 36-62 (.367) mark in Tempe. The Series: ASU leads the all-time series against the Ducks, 33-7, and has won the last 16 meetings. UO’s last win against the Sun Devils was a five-set affair on Nov. 15, 1997, at McArthur Court.

SCOUTING ARIZONA: The Wildcats (9-8, 0-5), who begin the week tied for last place in the Pac-10 with Oregon State, are desperate to turn their season around - one year after advancing to the Elite Eight at the NCAA Tournament. UA was ranked No. 18 in the preseason poll and spent three weeks among the Top 25 before dropping out on Sept. 18. Like their traveling partner, ASU, the Wildcats have had arguably the toughest Pac-10 schedule thus far, facing Top 10 teams in four of their first five matches. Arizona’s last win came in non-conference play on Sept. 15th vs. Eastern Illinois, 3-1. SO OH Brooke Buringrud leads the ‘Cats with 3.76 kills per game and 280.0 points. JR MB Dominique Lamb is hitting .314 and puts away 2.55 kills per game. Head coach David Rubio is the second-longest tenured coach in the Pac-10, having compiled a 287-149 (.658) record in 15 seasons in the desert. The Series: UA leads the all-time series against Oregon, 35-8, and has taken 15 straight. Oregon’s last win against Arizona came on Oct. 30, 1998 in five sets. That match was also UO’s last victory against a ranked opponent..

A DOZEN ‘DUBS’: At 12-3 overall, the Ducks have matched last season’s win total to equal the most victories by an Oregon volleyball team since UO won 14 matches in 1991.

DUCKS RECEIVE VOTES: For the first time since the 1991, Oregon received votes in the AVCA/CSTV Top 25 Coaches Poll (Oct. 9th). The Ducks earned four votes, placing them 35th. UO was ranked as high as No. 18 in 1991, when they cracked the Top 25 three times.

ROAD WARRIORS: UO’s 5-1 road mark this season is the third best among Pac-10 schools. Only first-place UCLA (9-0) and USC (8-0) have had more success away from home in 2006.

ONE GAME AWAY: JR MB Karen Waddington leads the Ducks with an average of 1.59 blocks per game but falls one game short of qualifying for inclusion among Pac-10 or NCAA statistical leaders (playing in a minimum of 66.7 percent of team’s games). She would rank 2nd in the conference and 17th nationally. Waddington, who has appeared in 37 of UO’s 56 games (66.1 percent), missed the first five matches of the season with a toe injury.

LEADERS OF THE PAC: The Ducks lead the Pac-10 in opponent hitting percentage (.118) and service aces, averaging 1.89 per game. Oregon is fifth in blocks per game (3.08). SO OH Mira Djuric leads the conference in aces per game (0.66). SR OH Erin Little is sixth in aces per game (0.36). SO L Katie Swoboda is fourth in digs with 4.91 per game, and FR S Nevena Djordjevic ranks ninth in assists with 7.84 per game. SR MB Kristen Bitter is tenth in blocks per game with an average of 1.16.

NCAA PROWESS: As of Oct. 8th, Oregon was ranked 22nd in the nation in blocks per game at 3.08. On the individual front, SO OH Mira Djuric was 11th among all NCAA Division I volleyball players in service aces per game (0.66).

RETURN OF THE MAC: The Ducks have posted three consecutive season-high crowds at McArthur Court, drawing 873 against UCLA on Sept. 21st, 1,067 against USC on Sept. 22nd and 2,260 on Sept. 29th against Oregon State. The crowd against the Beavers was the fourth largest in program history.

SERVING IT UP: So far during the 2006 season, the Ducks have produced two of the top serving performances in team history. SR OH Erin Little had six aces on Aug. 27 vs. Portland State, which ranks her tied for fifth on the single-match record list, and SO OH Mira Djuric trumped her with seven vs. Utah State on Sept. 2 to tie for the third most. Only nine other players in school history have recorded six or more aces in a single match. The record is 12 by Lauren Westendorf against Seton Hall in 2004.

300 BLOCKS FOR BITTER: SR MB Kristen Bitter surpassed 300 blocks for her career in Oregon’s 3-0 sweep of Fresno State on Sept. 8th. Bitter currently ranks tied for sixth on UO’s career blocks list with 337.

FASTEST TO 500: With 14 kills in the win over Cal State Northridge on Sept. 1st, SO OH Mira Djuric reached the 500-kill plateau faster than any Oregon player since the start of full record keeping in 1982. She now has 639.

FAB FROSH: When FR MB Sonja Newcombe signed to play for the Ducks last fall, she became just the sixth Volleyball Magazine Fab 50 player to make Eugene her college home. Newcombe is UO’s first Fab 50 recruit since current teammate SR S Heather Madison (2003).

BIG WIN: If hard evidence was needed to prove that Oregon’s volleyball program is headed in a different direction under second-year head coach Jim Moore, the Ducks surely produced it with their 3-1 upset at Long Beach State on Aug. 30th. The 49ers, ranked No. 17 in the CVU.com preseason top 25, have a storied volleyball tradition, which includes three NCAA Championships. Only Stanford, which has six titles, has more hardware than The Beach. Since LBSU was not ranked in the AVCA top 25 - considered the primary poll in women’s volleyball - the Ducks will wait a little bit longer before trumpeting a win over a ranked opponent for the first time since 1998. But that milestone looks a lot more realistic today than at any point in recent memory.

RECORD START: Oregon’s 10-match winning streak at the beginning of the 2006 season was a record start and tied the Ducks’ longest overall streak in school history set in 1984.

MOORE OF THE SAME: In his first two seasons at UO, head coach Jim Moore has a non-conference record of 21-1. That translates into a .955 winning percentage, easily the highest of any coach in Oregon’s 39-year history.

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