No. 11 Oregon (14-3, 6-2 Big Ten) hit .510 over the final two sets Sunday.
CORALVILLE, Iowa — The No. 11 Oregon volleyball team capped its road trip with a four-set road win at Iowa (25-17, 18-25, 25-14, 25-15). With Sunday’s result, the Ducks move to 14-3 overall with a 6-2 mark in Big Ten play.
Mimi Colyer led all players with 16 kills while hitting .317 against the Hawkeyes. It was her fourth match in a row with at least 16 kills. She was joined in double figures by Michelle Ohwobete who had a season-high 13 kills coupled with a .344 hitting percentage. In setting the team to a .328 figure, Cristin Cline had 45 assists to go along with six digs and three blocks.
In a balanced efforts, all five of the Ducks’ primary options had at least seven kills in the victory. Noemie Glover and Onye Ofoegbu each tallied eight kills while freshman Mia Tvrdy added seven kills including the match-winning tally.
Defensively, Oregon had 11.0 total team blocks for its eighth double-digit showing of the season. Libero Mackenzie Morris had 14 digs behind the UO block. The Ducks also combined for 10 service aces, led by a career-high four from Daley McClellan. Colyer, Morris and Ohwobete each contributed two aces. With her second service winner, Colyer reached 100 career aces.
How It Happened: Oregon won five of the first seven points of the match and led 13-7 when Iowa (9-11, 3-5) called its first timeout. The lead eventually grew to double figures at 22-12 after a kill by Colby Neal. Ofoegbu put down her first kill of the afternoon to give Oregon set point. An attack error by Iowa’s Malu Garcia handed the Ducks the 1-0 match lead.
Garcia and Michelle Urquhart led the Hawkeyes with 12 and 10 kills, respectively.
The home team responded by jumping out to an 8-2 lead in the second, bookending the first 10 point of the frame with 3-0 runs. Oregon fought back and pulled to within two points on five separate occasions, lastly after an Ofoegbu kill cut the Iowa lead to 12-10. However, the Hawkeyes answered with a 5-1 push to regain control of play. They went on to secure the set and even the match at 1-all.
In a return to their first-set form, the Ducks ran away with the third with the help of an 8-3 start. Oregon hit .619 with no attack errors, adding four aces and three blocks in the third set alone. Ohwobete served an ace to double up Iowa at 14-7 and Ofoegbu knocked down a kill to extend the lead to 10 at 21-11. On set point, Glover went cross court out of Iowa’s reach for the 2-1 lead on the match scoreboard.
The fourth set featured the only tie of the entire match—1-1—which kicked off an 8-0 surge by Oregon in another quick start. Tvrdy had two blocks during the push including a solo stuff for the 8-1 lead. She and Colyer each had five kills in the fourth. The final kill by Colyer gave UO the 20-12 advantage. On the team’s first match point, Tvrdy clinched the victory by cleaning up a tight pass to the net.
Oregon hit .510 (30-4-51) over the final two sets Sunday.
Notable: Morris and Ohwobete reached 1,900 career digs and 1,300 career kills, respectively … Sunday was the second all-time series meeting, and first since 1987 … Oregon checked in at No. 10 in the NCAA Committee top-16 reveal.
Up Next: The Ducks are back home Friday to host Maryland (6 p.m., B1G+). As part of the homecoming weekend, this year’s UO Athletics Hall of Fame—a group featuring all-time career assists leader Lauren Plum—will officially be inducted.
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