No. 20 Ducks Sweep South Carolina

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The No. 20 Oregon volleyball swept away thoughts of last weekend's 0-2 mark in Minnesota with a straight-set win (25-15, 25-18, 25-14) Saturday over South Carolina. Behind their third sweep of the season, the Ducks improve to 5-2 with one match remaining on the non-conference slate.
 
With just one attack error apiece, Brooke Nuneviller and Gloria Mutiri combined for 32 of the Ducks' 45 kills against South Carolina (6-4). The UO offense tallied a .368 hitting percentage under the direction of Hannah Pukis' 38 assists. Nuneviller put down 19 kills on 29 swings, good for a .621 figure while Mutiri recorded a season-high 13 kills to go along with a .550 hitting percentage.
 
Junior libero Georgia Murphy picked up a match-high 14 digs against the Gamecocks, and in doing so, moved from 11th to eighth on the UO all-time list. The Woodlands, Texas, native now has 1,190 digs in her career. Nuneviller added 10 digs to complete her fifth double-double of the season.
 
How It Happened
From 4-all in the first set, the Ducks won five in a row to create a little separation on the scoreboard. In the mini-run, Nuneviller had three kills. South Carolina got to within two points—UO leading 12-10—but Oregon maintained control of the opening frame. The Ducks ended the set on a 5-0 run, taking the 1-0 match advantage with a block from Mimi Colyer and Kiari Robey.
 
Colyer finished the match with a season-high six blocks to lead all players, and Oregon put up 10.0 total team blocks against the Gamecocks.
 
Mutiri got the second started with a kill followed by a Murphy ace, and UO was on its way to winning seven of the first 10 points in the set. Nuneviller delivered one of her two aces for a 21-14 lead, UO's largest margin of the set. Another ace—this time by Elise Ferreira—gave the Ducks a handful of set points. Colyer and Colby Neal teamed up for the set-winning block on the second set point.
 
Oregon had seven aces in Saturday's win, one off its season high of eight from last week's five setter with Penn State. Nuneviller and Ferreira led the way with two each to go along with one apiece from Murphy, Elise Agi and Ayva Cebollero.
 
The team traded points early in the third before South Carolina took a 6-5 lead. The Ducks answered with a run of points, taking a 10-7 lead on a block by Mutiri and Karson Bacon. Ferreira's second ace pushed the advantage to 15-10 and the Ducks' lead first reached double digits—22-12—with a kill by Agi. On a second match point, Pukis went over on two for a third, and match-winning, kill.
 
The Ducks' defense held South Carolina to a .103 hitting percentage, including a -.069 mark in the fifth.
 
Notable
South Carolina was Oregon's first SEC opponent since the 2016 season.
 
Up Next
The Ducks take on host Miami Sunday at 9 a.m. (PT) in their non-conference finale. The match will air live on the ACC Network and also be available through the ESPN app. Oregon opens conference play Wednesday, Sept. 21, with a road match against in-state rival Oregon State. The next home match is Sept. 25, against Stanford. Click HERE for Oregon's full schedule.
 
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