Beavers Take Civil War Match, Sink No. 13 Ducks
CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State volleyball team (19-12, 9-11 Pac-12) saw the largest crowd of the year Friday at Gill Coliseum in the last match of the regular season. The Beavers had both senior night and Civil War match presented by PacificSource Health Plans, The Oregon 529 College Savings Network, McDonalds, Spirit Mountain Casino and Your Local Ford Stores as they took on the No. 13 Oregon Ducks (21-9, 11-9 Pac-12). The Beavers honored seniors Amanda Brown, Laura Schaudt, Tayla Woods and Arica Nassar Friday and defeated the Ducks for the first time since 2011 when Schaudt, Woods and Nassar were freshmen on the team.
The Beavers took the first two sets of the match, one that required extra points at 27-25 and one that OSU won comfortably 25-18. After dropping the third set to the Oregon, OSU bounced back and ran away with the fourth set 25-12. The 13 point margin in the fourth set was the biggest loss that the Ducks have suffered in a set during the 2014 season.
“That was a great win for our program,” said head coach Taras Liskevych. “It was a real statement win for the team and showed what we are capable of. I can’t say enough about how hard this team has worked to get to where they are. It was a great blocking performance and we did a really good job serving tough, especially in the fourth set.”
The first set started with lots of siding out and neither team able to gain any breathing room. The Beavers took a two point lead at 10-8 after rattling off a 4-point run. The teams continued trading points, with neither team ever leading by more than two points. The Beavers eventually finished things off with back-to-back kills from Mary-Kate Marshall, giving OSU the set 27-25. The first set saw nine lead changes, along with the score being tied 17 different times.
The second set started similarly to the first, with the score being tied seven time before either team scored a 10th point in the set. The Beavers started to pull ahead in the set, going on a 6-1 run and a 4-1 run to take a commanding lead in the set. Marshall had the final three kills for the Beavers in the set, giving the standout freshman 16 kills through the first two sets of play. The Beavers took the set 25-18 and went to the break with a 2-0 lead over the Ducks.
The Beavers started strong in the third set, taking an early 4-1 lead. The Ducks rallied back to tie the score at 5-5 and take a 10-7 lead, with the Beavers quickly tying the score at 12-12. Neither team could extend their lead in the middle of the set beyond two points, until the Ducks took a 23-20 lead. After a kill from Brown the Ducks scored back-to-back points to take the set 25-21 and push the match to a fourth set.
Darby Reeder started the fourth set off with an ace, setting the tone as the Beavers would lead for the duration. Thanks to early kills from Brown and Marshall, as well as an ace from Marshall, the Beavers took a 10-2 lead and prompted Oregon to call their second time out of the set. The Ducks scored the first point coming back from the timeout, but the Beavers would go on a 10-1 run after that point, with five of the points being provided by the seniors, as Brown and Woods each scored aces with Schaudt and Nassar each putting down a kill along with Nassar also adding a block. The Ducks would close the gap slightly late in the set, going on a 4-1 run, but the senior Woods would finish off the set catching the Oregon defense off guard for the dump kill and give the Beavers the set 25-12.
Marshall led the team with 23 kills along eight digs, an ace and three blocks on her way to 25.5 points on the night
Brown totaled 11 kills with just three errors, hitting .348. The senior added three digs, an assist and eight blocks, one shy of her career-high. Schaudt had five kills in the match with no errors while adding four digs and three blocks. Nassar had seven kills with only two errors and added six blocks. Woods had her seventh straight double-double with 46 assists and 17 digs. The senior finishes the regular season with a team best 18.
“It was a great win,” said Nassar. “It feels really good to win the final match we are going to play together at Gill Coliseum and even better to be able to beat the Ducks.”
“As seniors, the four of us worked hard all summer,” said Woods. “We took it upon ourselves that we were going to turn things around this year and it feels really good for that to translate into success on the court.”
With her first kill of the match, Nassar reached 1,000 career kills, making her just the 14th player in school history to reach that mark. Already with 500 career blocks, Nassar becomes just the second player in school history to reach both the 1,000 career kill and 500 career block plateaus. Woods also reached a significant milestone in the match, with her 34th assists of the night she became just the fifth player in school history to reach 3,000 career assists.
“Those are really big milestones,” said Liskevych. “Tayla and Arica have both had great careers here at Oregon State. It’s a testament to just how hard they have worked over the years.”
Katelyn Driscoll joined Marshall and Brown in double-digit kills, finishing with 10 and only one error with 27 attempts. The redshirt sophomore also added four blocks, helping the team to 14 team blocks, the highest total for the Beavers at Gill Coliseum during the 2014 season.
Reeder led the back row with a very strong match, digging out a match-high 25 balls and adding five assists and two aces. Freshman Hannah Troutman added 13 digs while Rachel Buehner added eight.
The Beavers will now await NCAA Selection Sunday, with hopes of the program’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2001 and third in school history. The team is hosting a watch party at the Loge level of Reser Stadium Sunday at 4:45; the event is free and open to the public.
“It would be great to see as many people there as possible. We’re thankful for the work of past and present players that have helped this program grow and we’re hoping to celebrate and continue a great 2014 season with being selected to the NCAA Tournament.”