Women's Volleyball: Third-Ranked Cardinal Defeat Ducks, 3-0

Oregon bettered the Cardinal with 52 kills, but also accounted for 30 errors.

Erin Little had seven kills and 12 digs against Stanford. Photo: goducks.com

EUGENE - Oregon freshman Sonja Newcombe led all players with 16 kills and sophomore Mira Djuric had 14, but the Ducks faced a tough challenge in the third-ranked Stanford Cardinal Thursday evening.

Behind 15 total blocks, the Cardinal defeated Oregon 30-26, 36-34, 30-22 in front of 1,203 fans at McArthur Court.

The loss – Oregon’s fourth straight – dropped the Ducks to 17-8 overall, 7-8 in the Pacific-10 Conference, while Stanford improves to 22-3, 13-2.

Oregon will look to get back on the winning track when it faces No. 15 California tomorrow evening at 5:00 PM.

It will be a rematch of perhaps Oregon’s best win of the season, when they beat the Bears 3-1 in Berkeley Oct. 19th.

It snapped a 15-match winning streak by California.

It is also part of a doubleheader with the Oregon men’s basketball team, which will play at 8:00 PM.

On Thursday, the Ducks ran into an athletic Stanford team that committed just 14 errors in the match and had 50 kills.

Stanford also dominated the serving game (eight aces) and outblocked Oregon, 15-4.

“They served better than any team all year and we handled it really well,” Oregon head coach Jim Moore said. “I was happy with our serving and our passing even though they also served well.”

As they have done all year, Newcombe and Djuric paced Oregon’s offense, while Neticia Enesi and Erin Little each added seven kills. Sophomore Katie Swoboda and Little each had a match-high 12 digs.

“Last week we didn’t have any energy and I think the loss against Washington totally drained us,” Djuric said. It shook our confidence. Tonight we did lose, but Stanford is an amazing team.”

Oregon led only once in the first game (6-4) and trailed 28-23 late in the game before cutting Stanford’s lead to 28-26 on a block by Sonja Newcombe and Karen Waddington.

The Cardinal then got back-to-back kills by Kristin Richards to secure the game one victory.

The Cardinal held the advantage most of the way in game two, but the Ducks rallied late to tie the game at 29-all on a Katie Swoboda ace.

The game was then tied five more times – the last at 34 – before Stanford capitalized on consecutive Duck errors to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

Stanford didn’t allow the Ducks to get as close late in game three, pulling away to win 30-22 on a kill by Cynthia Barboza.

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