EUGENE, Ore. – The No. 18 Oregon volleyball team toughed out a five-set victory (21-25, 25-21, 25-20, 17-25, 15-11) Saturday night over Rice at Matthew Knight Arena. The Ducks hit .458 in the decisive set on their way to a 4-0 mark through the first two weekends of the 2022 season.
Senior outside hitter Brooke Nuneviller tallied 20 kills and 15 digs, good for the 50th double-double of her career. She was one of three Ducks with a double-double against Rice (4-1), joined by Mimi Colyer with 12 kills and 11 digs, and setter Hannah Pukis with 52 assists and a career-high 24 digs.
Libero Georgia Murphy finished just off a double-double of her own with 23 digs and eight assists, both season highs. Freshman middle blocker Colby Neal put down a season-high 12 kills, coupled with a .421 hitting percentage.
How It Happened
In the final set, the Ducks won three of the first four points but a majority of the fifth game was back-and-forth and featured seven ties. Neal had a kill at 8-7 to give UO the lead when the teams switched sides but a block miscue by the Owls gave the home team the lead for good at 10-9. With a kill off the hand of Nuneviller, the Ducks had a 13-11 advantage and forced Rice into its second timeout.
Back-to-back kills by Morgan Lewis and Karson Bacon out of the huddle secured the home win over a Rice team just a few spots outside of the AVCA top-25 national poll. Bacon had seven kills on the day along with three blocks.
Six different UO players had at least…
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