Huskies Suffer Two-Point Heartbreaker To Ducks

Wednesday, November 21

Seattle, WA

6:00 PM

University of Washington

18-11, 10-9Pac-12

Oregon

19-10, 12-7Pac-12

Oregon

Washington

Photo by: Red Box Pictures

November 21, 2018 | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score PDF Watch: Highlights vs. Oregon

By: UW Athletic Communications

SEATTLE – On the whole, the 19th-ranked Husky volleyball team scored thirteen more points than 17th-ranked Oregon tonight, but didn't get the critical ones at the ends of sets two and five, and that let the Ducks steal a 16-25, 25-23, 12-25, 25-20, 15-13 win in front of 2,466 fans at Alaska Airlines Arena.

Washington (18-11, 10-9) honored Destiny Julye on Senior Night as the Huskies played their final home match of the regular season. Julye had a great performance, getting four kills on seven swings to hit .571 and adding an ace and six digs.

"What a match to end it on," said Head Coach Keegan Cook on Julye's effort. "I thought she was great from the service line, she hit really well out of the back row. Certainly wanted to win it for her. When it comes to quality of people that come out of this program, they don't get much better than Destiny Julye. If you measure our success on that, she's one of our greatest successes."

It was UW's first five set match since the first week of Pac-12 play, and their first five set loss of the season after winning their first three this year.

The Huskies dominated the first set and had a chance to take a 2-0 lead, but Oregon came back from down 17-21 in the second and scored the final two points to break a 23-23 tie and that evened the match. Then the Huskies were even more in control of the third set, going up 2-1 on a 25-12 win, but Oregon answered again with its best offensive set to win the fourth. Down 4-8 in the fifth set, the Huskies came back to take a 10-9 lead, and it was tied at 12-12, but Oregon scored three of the last four points to complete the comeback.

The attack percentages ended up nearly identical, as UW hit .310 and Oregon hit .308. Washington had a big edge in aces, 8 to 3, and only missed four serves compared to 11 for Oregon. But the Ducks outblocked the Huskies, 9.0 to 5.0, and had fifteen more digs, 72 to 57.

"The only way you want to lose, or the only way you want to play in the tournament, is all out, and to lose by two in a fifth set, this match from an execution and effort standpoint was a lot different than Stanford," Cook said. "So I'm glad to see us taking a step towards being a better tournament team."

Junior Kara Bajema had a great performance with a match-high 21 kills, hitting .415, and added 15 digs. Claire Hoffman and Samantha Drechsel had 12 kills apiece and junior Avie Niece had five kills, hitting .556, with four blocks. Lauren Sanders also had seven kills, hitting .312. Freshman Ella May Powell distributed 47 assists with 11 digs and three aces.

UP NEXT: Washington finishes up the regular season this Saturday in Pullman where they will look to get a win against Washington State to take into the NCAA tournament. The Huskies should earn a tourney bid, though their hopes to get a top-16 seed and host took a hit tonight. NCAA selections are coming this Sunday, Nov. 25, at 5:30 p.m. Pacific time.

SET 1: Claire Hoffman started things off with a kill off a long bump set from Shayne McPherson. Bajema and Niece stuffed an Oregon slide for a 5-2 lead and then Oregon was called out of rotation for a UW ace. Powell fired a more conventional ace for 8-3 Dawgs and Oregon called the first timeout. Powell's next serve was overpassed and Niece killed it, then Powell dropped in another ace between two Ducks for 10-3 before Oregon snapped the 4-0 run. Powell set Niece for a quick kill for 12-5 Dawgs. UW missed serve out of a timeout and then Oregon blocked the Dawgs twice in a row to cut the lead down to 13-8, but Sanders snapped that with her first kill. The Dawgs used a 3-0 run to push to 18-10, as Bajema had a kill on the left, and then Bogomolova notched an ace, followed by a Bogmolova dig that led to another Bajema kill. Hoffman terminated twice more from the left as the Huskies kept pushing to 23-15. An Oregon double contact and service error finished it, 25-16, for the Huskies. Washington rolled to a .385 attack percentage while Oregon hit .273, with UW adding a big four aces. Bajema and Hoffman had four kills apiece.

SET 2: Sanders opened the second set with a slide kill for 1-0. Hoffman and Bajema had consecutive kills off the block for 3-1. Niece finished a slide from Powell for 5-3 and added a transition kill from the middle for 7-4. The Ducks scored four straight to take their first lead at 7-8. The Ducks won some more extended rallies and got a three-point lead at 9-12, with Hoffman finishing off the block to end that small run. McPherson dug a laser straight up and Bajema finished for 11-12. The Dawgs got back even at 13-all on a Duck error. Oregon aced UW for 13-15 at the media timeout. Out of the break, UW shanked a pass but McPherson flew a long set across to Bajema and she put it down. Another Powell ace into the seam between Ducks put UW back up one, 16-15. A roof was built by Niece and Drechsel for 18-16 Dawgs. Hoffman had a kill off the block and the Ducks missed one wide for 20-17 and an Oregon timeout. Drechsel tooled the block out of the break for 21-17 before the Ducks got their next kill in serve-receive. The Ducks then blocked a tip attempt from Sanders for 21-19 and UW used its first timeout. UW could not get a solid pass against the Oregon serve and gave away three more points and had to take another timeout down 21-23 with the Ducks on a 6-0 run. Drechsel snapped it with a kill that UW had to successfully challenge was touched by the Ducks. Bajema then laid out for a dig and Hoffman finished in transition to tie it at 23-23 and prompt Oregon's last timeout. The Dawgs had two swings at the next point but couldn't finish and Oregon ended it for set point at 23-24. Again UW couldn't put away its first swing and the Ducks turned a dig into a kill to end it, 23-25. The Dawgs hit .262 but let the Ducks hit .325 in the set. Bajema had four kills on five swings to hit .600 in the set.

SET 3: Bajema connected out of the back row for the first point of the third set. Julye then flew in for her own back row kill for 4-3. A couple Oregon errors helped the Dawgs build a 9-5 lead and the Ducks took time. Niece and Drechsel put up a block for 11-5 Dawgs. Hoffman put one down from Powell and then the senior Julye fired an ace for 14-7 Dawgs and the Ducks called time again. Julye rifled one out of the back row again and then Hoffman drove an ace off the defense for 17-8. Hoffman's next serve was overpassed and Sanders tapped it down for the kill and a 10-point lead. Bajema used the block from the left for her 13th kill and a 20-10 edge. Bajema blasted away again from the right side for an emphatic 23-11 point. Drechsel pounded one down from the right for set point at 24-12. An Oregon error ended it for the Dawgs, 25-12, as Washington controlled things with a blazing hot .556 attack percentage. Bajema rolled up seven kills on 11 swings without an error for a .636 mark.

SET 4: The Ducks scored five of the first seven points to start the fourth set leading 2-5. Niece and Drechsel had a key block to keep the Huskies in contact down 5-7. Hoffman got a touch off the block for 7-10 Ducks. A key call was missed on a Husky block that officials didn't see go off the Oregon attacker, and the Huskies fell behind by five at the media timeout, 10-15. Oregon continued to extend the lead to 11-18 at which point the Huskies took timeout. Hoffman finished out of the timeout and a Julye serve was overpassed leading to a Sanders kill for 13-18. An ace with tape assistance for Hoffman had it at 15-20. The Huskies crept within four at 19-23 but Oregon got the sideout to earn five set points. Drechsel saved one from the left pin, but the Ducks put the next one away for the 25-20 win. It was Oregon's stellar attacking in the fourth as it hit .424 while UW was at .205 for the set.

SET 5: A couple long rallies went UW's way for a 2-1 lead to start the fifth. A 3-0 Oregon run gave the Ducks a two-point lead a 3-5. But the Ducks ended a lengthy rally with a kill for 4-7 and the Huskies used their first timeout. Drechsel got a kill on the touch for 6-9 Ducks. A solo block by Sanders fired up the crowd to make it 7-9. Then Julye's serve was overpassed and Powell stuffed it down for 8-9 and Oregon took time. Out of the break the Ducks sailed one long for a fourth-straight UW point and the 9-9 tie. UW went up, 10-9, on another UO error before the Ducks snapped the run. Oregon went back up one, but Julye tied it at 11-11 off the block. The teams swapped sideouts, but down 12-13, Bajema missed long to go down match point, 12-14, and force UW's last timeout. Oregon's serve found the net for 13-14. The Ducks got the next point on their first swing, however, to end it, 13-15. Oregon had 14 kills on its 15 points in the fifth set, hitting .273 while the Huskies hit .208 with just six kills.