Beavers Enter Final Week of Regular Season
Last Week Roundup
The Beavers returned home for their final full weekend at Gill Coliseum. They hosted No. 25 USC Friday at noon, downing the Women of Troy with a commanding 3-1 victory. The Beavers controlled the first set against No. 17 UCLA and the first half of the second set, but the Bruins eventually took the match 3-1.
The Road So Far
The Beavers had their best non-conference season since 1996, going 10-1, with their only loss coming against then No. 23 Michigan State. The team had wins over Michigan, Long Beach State, and Pacific among others. During Pac-12 play the Beavers have split in all but one week, with wins over USC, ASU, California, Washington State and Utah. The Beavers enter the weekend now 18-11 overall and 8-10 in conference play.
The Week Ahead
The Beavers enter the final weekend of the regular season. They travel to face the No. 18 Colorado Buffaloes Wednesday before returning to Corvallis to finish the regular season against No. 13 Oregon with the second Civil War volleyball match of 2014 presented by PacificSource Health Plans, The Oregon 529 College Savings Network, McDonalds, Spirit Mountain Casino and Your Local Ford Stores..
Live Stats
Live stats will be available for both of the matches over the weekend and can be found on the Schedule page at osubeavers.com
TV
The Civil War Match and Senior Day on Friday, Nov. 28 will be broadcast on Pac-12 Oregon and Washington.
Live Stream
A live stream will be available for 2:00 p.m. match against Colorado Wednesday. The stream can be found on the schedule page at osubeavers.com
Social Media
The volleyball Twitter account is Twitter.com/BeavsVolleyball while the Facebook page be found at Facebook.com/OregonStateVolleyball. The OSU Instagram account can be found at Instagram.com/OregonStateVolleyball.
A Look at Colorado
The Beavers have yet to face Colorado during the 2014 season. The Buffaloes have a triad of Simpson sisters all contributing to the team, Taylor, Gabby and Cierra Simpson. Senior Taylor Simpson has 516 kills and a .299 attack percentage. Nicole Edelman and Gabby Simpson split serving duties, with Edelman at 729 assists on the year and Simpson with 551. The Simpson sisters have the top three spots for digs on the team, with Cierra leading the team with 454 digs, sister Taylor has 298 digs and Gabby has 194. Colorado has home wins over No. 2 Washington and No. 14 Arizona, but has losses to No. 15 UCLA, No. 19 USC and No. 17 ASU.
A Look at the Ducks
The Beavers and Ducks faced each other in the first Pac-12 Contest of the season for each of the team, with the Ducks winning 3-0. Martenne Bettendorf leads the team with 367 kills, followed by Liz Brenner at 309, Shebby Frankie with 243 and Kacey Nady with 206. Maggie Scott leads the team with 705 assists with Shellsy Ashen also seeing significant playing time with 597. Amanda Benson leads the team with 446 with Brenner totaling 361 digs. Serena Warner leads the team with 108 blocks.
Tournament Eligible
With the 3-1 win over Washington State Nov. 6 in Pullman, Wash. the Beavers became tournament eligible. Now with 17 wins and a 31 match schedule for 2014 the team has insured that it will finish with at least a .500 winning percentage. The Beavers last went to the NCAA Tournament in 2001 with their only other appearance coming in 1983.
RPI Watch
The Beavers moved up one spot this week (Nov. 17) and now are 35 in the RPI. The Beavers are ahead of Arizona State at 41, who OSU defeated 3-0 earlier in the season and 3-2 in Tempe last weekend. Utah sits at 46 in the RPI. All Pac-12 teams rank in the top 116, led by Stanford at 1 and rounded out by California at 116.
AVCA Poll
While they have yet to crack the top-25 of the AVCA Coaches poll, the Beavers have received votes in eight of the 14 Polls this year and are currently receiving 66votes, unofficially placing it at 26 in the nation, just behind No. 25 Hawaii who has 76 votes.. It is the most amount of votes that the Beavers have received in 2014.
Record Book Rookie!
Mary-Kate Marshall had 51 kills her first weekend as a Beaver and has continued her dominant offensive season since then, entering the weekend with 446 kills in 107 sets (4.17 kps). The Coppell, Texas native recently passed Rachel Rourke (2006-09) for the most kills by a freshman in OSU history. Rourke has three of the six best seasons by a Beaver hitter overall and holds the career record with 1,920 kills. Marshall needs 14 kills to enter the top-10 overall for the school. Marshall is 7th in the Pac-12 per set, the only underclassman in the top-10 and behind four seniors and two juniors. She has the third most kills by a freshman playing Division I volleyball this season, with Oral Roberts and Missouri State having the other top hitters. She also has the eighth most digs by a freshman in OSU history.
Record Book Watch
Senior captain Arica Nassar enters the weekend No. 16 on the career kills list with 989. Should Nassar score another 12 kills and reach the 1k mark she will become the 14th player in school history, with the most recent being Camille Sexton (2009-12) who finished at OSU with 1,101 kills. The Middle blocker is currently No. 3 in the Pac-12 with 1.28 blocks per set. With 125 this year Nassar has 527 career blocks. She is just the third player in school history to reach the 500 career block plateau. Should Nassar finish the season with 1,000 kills she will become just the second player in school history to reach both the 1k kills and 500 block mark. Senior Tayla Woods sits at 2,931 assists good for 5th place on the career list for the program. Woods needs 69 assists to become just the 5th player in school history to reach 3,000 career assists.
Reeding at the Top of Her Class
Darby Reeder has posted 489 digs during the 2014 season, already the 2nd most by a junior in school history , trailing only Becky Defoe’s record setting 591 digs during her junior year in 2012. On the overall list, Reeder is currently 4th and with 11 more digs she will become just the 2nd player in school history to reach the 500 dig plateau.
Reeder ranks in the top-3 for service aces and digs in the Pac-12. Reeder has averaged 0.32 aces per set, in third place for the Pac-12 right behind Cassie Strickland (0.39) and behind Samantha Bricio of USC (0.74) for the top spot in the conference. Currently ranked No. 3 with 4.41 digs, behind Taylor Whittingham at 4.86 per set. Reeder has ranked as high as second in the season.
Out of the Gates With a Bang
With a 10-1 record to begin the season, the Oregon State volleyball team had their best start since 1996 when the team started the year 11-0. The ‘96 season ranks as the best start in the NCAA era of program history.
Block Party
Blocking has been a big part of the Beaver game during the 2014 season. The Beavers had 2.57 blocks per set, for a total of 287, behind only the Washington Huskies and Stanford Cardinal in the conference.
Let’s Play Five
The Beavers currently hold a 5-1 record in five set matches, earning victories at home against Michigan and Utah while downing Utah State and Arizona State away from Gill and defeating #18 Long Beach state on a neutral court. The lone 5-set loss came against then No. 19 UCLA on the road at Crossroads High School Gym in Santa, Monica Calif.
Hello Again...
The Beavers faced 3 opponents during the 2014 that they also played during the 2013 season. After losing to them in Michigan in 2013, the Beavers defeated the Michigan Wolverines at Gill this year. Michigan State dealt the Beavers their first loss of the 2014 season, going 4 close sets. Long Beach State was felled by the Beavers for a second year in a row, with both matches being pushed into extra points in the 5th set before the Beavers secure the victory.
How They Shape Up - Returners
Oregon State returns nine student-athletes who played for the team in 2013 as well as Katelyn Driscoll who missed the season due to injury. Now sophomore Lila Toner led the team with 280 kills, a 2.75 per set average. She also finished fourth on the team with 194 digs, a 1.90 per set rate. Tayla Woods returns at setter after finishing the 2014 season with 1076 assists and 253 digs. Arica Nassar and Laura Schaudt both finished 2013 with over 200 kills apiece, Nassar with 234 and Schaudt with 258. Darby Reeder tallied 195 digs as a defensive specialist.
How They Shape Up - Newcomers
Oregon State welcomes eight new members to the 2014 team. Transfers Emilie Wilmes and Dana Backlund join the team from Long Beach State and Florida respectively. Wilmes has been productive when on the court and Backlund has provided depth at setter while filling in for two matches. Freshmen Hannah Troutman and Mary-Kate Marshall have both contributed throughout the season. While McKenna Hollingsworth, Maddy Gravley, Lanesha Reagan and Kory Cheshire have yet to see action.
Liskevych And The Staff
Oregon State head coach Terry Liskevych is in his 10th season piloting the program. He is joined by associate head coach Mark Barnard, who is also in his 10th year. Emily Hiza returns for her fourth season as an assistant coach, while KC Bennett joins the team for her first year as a volunteer assistant coach.