No. 11 Oregon got 25 kills from Mimi Colyer, rallied from a 2-1 match deficit in Sunday’s victory.
By: Rob Moseley, Editor-in-Chief, GoDucks.com
EUGENE, Ore. — With Washington in town, perhaps it was fitting that things devolved into a dogfight Sunday at Matthew Knight Arena.
The No. 11 Oregon volleyball team was pushed to the limit by the Huskies, but the Ducks rallied after dropping two of the first three sets and scored the final six points of the fifth to come from behind and win. The UO women (13-2, 5-1 Big Ten) finished a weekend sweep of ranked teams, following up their Wednesday sweep of No. 16 USC with a 25-19, 22-25, 19-25, 25-21, 15-12 win over the No. 24 Huskies.
The three off days between matches and an electric atmosphere around campus from Saturday’s big win in football perhaps contributed to a slow start by the volleyball team on Sunday. But the Ducks found their groove, finally, to the delight of their 3,141 fans.
“It felt like it took forever to turn the bus around,” UO coach Matt Ulmer said. “It was a real slow, slow turn. But credit to our group for getting it together and being really tough down the stretch. …
“I thought the fans kept the energy going (from the football game) and were really important to us, especially down the stretch. They made a difference.”
Mimi Colyer had a season-high 25 kills to lead the Ducks, along with 13 digs for her 30th career double-double. She carried Oregon early, until the team started to click collectively and hit .339 in winning the final two sets.
“We need to be able to come out here and execute, stick to the game plan,” Colyer said. “We just did a really poor job of that today. We were able to pull out the win, but it was just kind of a messy, messy win for the Ducks today.”
How It Happened: Both teams sought to put service pressure on from the outset, and Oregon was more successful. The Ducks had five aces in the opening set, against one service error, while Washington had one ace with four errors. Onye Ofoegbu had three of her seven kills on the day in the opening set, which the UO women won despite hitting .083.
Washington put together its most efficient offensive performance of the matinee in set two, hitting .297 to even the match. The Ducks got five kills in the set from Colyer, who had at least 25 in a match for the sixth time in her career, for the second time against UW and for the first time since a 2022 NCAA Tournament matchup with Nebraska.
“We’ve talked about how, if you want to play the last week of the year, those teams have people that you can just put a ball up to, even if it’s not a perfect pass, and they can side you out or score a point for you,” Ulmer said. “Mimi is the closest thing I think we’ve ever had to that; maybe Alaina Bergsma was that way in ’12, but not too many pins at Oregon have been able to do what she did tonight or at other times.”
Washington’s service pressure continued to pay dividends in set three. The Huskies had three aces, and put enough pressure on the Ducks that they hit just .176. Colyer was again the exception, collecting six more kills in the set.
“Especially as a middle, it’s good to know we have somebody who can put it away,” UO middle blocker Colby Neal said. “It’s harder to get us attempts when our passing isn’t the best. So it’s really good that I have someone I can trust to put the ball on the floor.”
Colyer continued to lead the Ducks in set four, with nine more kills. But Neal, Ofoegbu and Michelle Ohwobete had two each as Oregon adjusted to Washington’s defense in the latter stages of the match. A four-point run including three Colyer kills gave Oregon an 11-9 lead in the set, and the Ducks led the rest of the way.
“They play not super-deep, and me and Michelle at the end were more successful staying high and going deep-corner, putting it off the block — just not hitting it right at them,” Colyer said. “… For a little bit we were hitting right at the block or we were hitting right at the defender, instead of making them move.”
The fifth set saw Washington score five straight to lead 5-2, then another three in a row to lead 9-4. Trailing 10-5, the Ducks scored four of the next five to close the gap. They closed the match by overcoming a 12-9 deficit with the last six points of the day — only one of them a kill by Colyer, as the Ducks had finally found some balance.
“We looked kind of scared — not that we were gonna roll over and die, but it was kind of looking that way for a second,” Colyer said. “So it was just, OK, everyone just flush it. We’re a good volleyball team. We know who we are. Let’s just get back to what we’re doing and just make them play out of it.”
Ohwobete finished the match with 12 kills, and Neal joined Ofoegbu with seven. Mackenzie Morris had a season-high 17 digs, and Cristin Cline finished with 42 assists and 10 digs.
Up Next: Oregon goes on the road to play at Wisconsin on Friday (5 p.m., B1G+).
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