10-0 Ducks Ready to Begin Pac-10 Play

University of Oregon weekly women’s volleyball digest.

Photo: goducks.com

EUGENE - OREGON THIS WEEK: The unranked Ducks (10-0, 0-0) open Pacific-10 conference play at home, hosting No. 3 UCLA (13-0, 0-0) on Thursday and No. 7 USC (11-0, 0-0) on Friday at McArthur Court.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: Oregon polished off its non-conference schedule with three wins in as many matches. The Ducks won at Portland, 3-1, on Tuesday, and swept Gonzaga and Boise State at the Broncos’ tournament on Friday and Saturday. UO took the Boise State Invitational crown for its third tournament victory of the season.

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 374-174 (.682) 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 NO. 3 UCLA: The third-ranked Bruins (13-0, 0-0) are off to their best start since going 20-0 at the beginning of the 1993 season. UCLA finished its non-conference season with straight-set victories over Florida International, Long Island and host Maryland at the Hilton Garden Inn Greenbelt Invitational last weekend. SR MB Nana Meriwether was named MVP after hitting .660 and averaging 1.56 blocks per game. SO OH Ali Daley and SO S Nellie Spicer were also selected to the All-Tournament Team. Head coach Andy Banachowski has spent all 40 years of his head coaching career at UCLA and has a 1,017-266 (.793) record. The Bruins lead the all-time series with Oregon, 43-1, and have won the last 37 meetings. In the last match between the two sides, Oregon held a 2-1 lead before falling in five games on Nov. 4 at Mac Court.

SCOUTING NO. 7 USC: The seventh-ranked Women of Troy (11-0, 0-0) wrapped up an impressive preseason run with a pair of home wins over ranked opponents then-No. 20 Pepperdine and then-No. 14 Purdue. SO OH Asia Kaczor is the reigning Pac-10 Player of the Week after tallying 37 kills (4.11 kpg) and 29 digs in the matches with Pepperdine and Purdue. USC is coached by sixth-year head coach Mick Haley, who has a career mark of 142-22 (.866) at the school. Haley has an overall record of 664-151-1 (.806) in 23 seasons as a college coach. The Women of Troy lead the all-time series against UO, 37-6, and have won 31 straight against the Ducks.

BITTER NABS TOURNAMENT MVP HONORS: SR MB Kristen Bitter was named MVP following the conclusion of the Boise State Invitational last weekend (Sept. 15-16). Bitter helped the Ducks defeat Gonzaga and the host Broncos to win team title, averaging 2.00 blocks and 2.83 kills per game, and hitting .343. She was also named to the All-Tournament team along with SR OH Erin Little.

DJURIC COMING OF AGE: SO OH Mira Djuric was the team’s top hitter and point producer a season ago, but head coach Jim Moore still saw room for improvement, stating during training camp that “if Mira corrects some of the freshman errors into balls kept in play, it will have a dramatic impact on the team.” Through 11 non-conference matches, the Belgrade, Serbia native has done exactly that. As a rookie, Djuric hit just .225 against Division I non-conference foes. This year, against tougher competition, she is has her average up to a solid .308 and has Oregon’s top three individual hitting performances, including a .667 mark against Boise State on Sept. 16. In that match, Djuric had 15 kills against one error on 21 swings.

WELCOME BACK WADSTER: The return of JR MB Karen Waddington has been a big boost to the Ducks’ prowess on the block. After missing the first six matches of the season with a toe injury, the Canadian (Langley, B.C.) is averaging a team-best 1.83 blocks per game and has helped Oregon move from fifth to second in the Pac-10 in the category over the past week. She had 23.0 total blocks in UO’s three wins last week, including a career-high 10 block assists at Boise State (Sept. 16).

RECORD TERRITORY: Oregon’s current 10-match winning streak is the longest in school history to start a season and equals the longest unbeaten string overall, established in 1984.

LEADERS OF THE PAC: The Ducks lead the Pac-10 in service aces, averaging 2.19 per game. Oregon is second in blocks (3.28) per game and third in opponent hitting percentage (.101). SO OH Mira Djuric leads the conference in aces per game (0.78). SR OH Erin Little is tenth in hitting percentage (.357) and fourth in aces per game (0.43). SO L Katie Swoboda is fifth in digs with 4.49 per game, and SR MB Kristen Bitter ranks tenth in blocks with 1.22 per game.

FINAL FOUR: Oregon (10-0) is one of four unbeaten teams in the Pac-10 along with UCLA (13-0), California (11-0) and USC (11-0). Washington State (12-2) is the conference leader in overall wins and every Pac-10 side has a winning percentage of .727 or better with the exception of Oregon State (3-6, .333).

MOORE OF THE SAME: Head coach Jim Moore improved his non-conference record at Oregon to 21-1 with three wins last week. That translates into a .955 winning percentage, easily the highest of any coach in Oregon’s 39-year history.

2006 HONORS

Boise State Invitational, Sept. 15th-16th

Team Championship; MVP: Kristen Bitter; All-Tournament Team: Kristen Bitter, Erin Little

Oregon/Oregon State Tournament, Sept. 8th-9th

All-Tournament Team: Mira Djuric, Erin Little; No Team Championship awarded

Freemont Investment & Loan Invitational at Northridge, Calif., Sept. 1st-2nd

Team Championship, All-Tournament Team: Mira Djuric, Erin Little

Oregon Kickoff Classic, Aug. 25th-27th

Team Championship; No All-Tournament Team selected

SERVING IT UP: Not even halfway through the 2006 season, the Ducks have already produced two of the top serving performances in team history. SR OH Erin Little had six aces on Aug. 27th 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. 2nd 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. 8. Bitter currently ranks eighth on UO’s career blocks list with 317 and needs 43 to break into the top five.

FASTEST TO 500: With 14 kills in the win over Cal State Northridge on Sept. 1, 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 549.

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.

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