Ducks Make It A Perfect 10 Straight

EUGENE, Ore. — The No. 12 Oregon volleyball team won the last two sets to post a five-set win over UCLA on Friday, the second time this season the Ducks beat the Bruins by winning sets four and five.

Down two sets to one and tied 12-12 in the fourth, the Ducks pulled away to win the set and then followed the same script in the fifth, pulling away from an 8-8 tie to win the match. Oregon extended its win streak to 10 matches and remained perfect in Matthew Knight Arena at 10-0 this season with the 25-18, 25-27, 16-25, 25-22, 15-10 victory.

“I just really liked our fight, I liked our response, I liked our maturity,” UO coach Matt Ulmer said. “Things weren’t going well for us but we were able to find a way. That’s a pretty neat characteristic to have.”

The Ducks improved to 20-5 overall and 14-3 Pac-12 play, staying within two games of first-place Stanford in the race for the conference title.

How It Happened: Oregon started well, going up 3-0 in the first set after consecutive kills by Gloria Mutiri and 9-4 after points by Brooke Nuneviller and Kiari Robey. UCLA rallied to lead 15-12 at the media timeout, but Oregon scored four straight out of the break, capped by a block from Karson Bacon and Hannah Pukis and a kill by Bacon. After the Bruins rallied back in front, 17-16, the Ducks finished off the set with a 9-1 run, winning it on back-to-back kills by Nuneviller. Freshman Mimi Colyer served six straight points during the run, sustaining it through two different UCLA timeouts.

“Pretty mature,” Ulmer said. “For us, we’re really trying to go one point at a time. And you can see why we need to; we can get down, but we can go on a 10-point run if we can really focus in — and against really good teams. So, I like when they play in the moment. We are definitely our best selves when we do that.”

The Ducks played from behind most of the next two sets. UCLA jumped out to an 11-6 lead in the second, Oregon fought back within 11-10 and the Bruins broke it open again at 16-10. Down 24-17, Oregon showed impressive fight by fighting off seven straight set points to tie it 24-24, and they fought off another while down 25-24 before UCLA clinched the set. The third set again saw the Bruins start fast, as they took a 15-7 lead. This time the Ducks weren’t able to mount a rally, and UCLA closed the set with a 6-1 run to take the lead in the match.

Oregon stabilized in the fourth, getting two kills from Mutiri during a four-point run to lead 8-5. The Ducks scored four…