Oregon Ducks Volleyball: Buffs can't handle Oregon attack

Liz Brenner was able to overcome 10 attack errors as she led the Ducks to a straight set victory over visiting Colorado, Friday night. Brenner was in double digits in both kills and digs. "The one thing that Liz is doing right now for sure is bringing energy," coach Moore said "she's awesome at that." Oregon was able to stifle Kelsey English and the Buffaloes attack as the Buffs also struggled with errors in both the attack and serve game.

Oregon had shown the ability only a week ago to win a set ugly. Win ugly is precisely what they had to do against a Colorado team who seemed to drag the Ducks down into their sloppy play. It was a back and forth set and the Ducks managed to stay in the set due in part to Colorado's inability to serve. The Buffs committed 6 service errors in the first set allowing the Ducks to stay tight and eventually win the set 25-21. While Oregon didn't attack well, they did get two service aces from Amanda Benson which swung the momentum to the Ducks.

After having Colorado play them tight in the first set, Oregon did not appear to be interested in having the Buffs hang around again. Colorado got out to a 6-2 lead early lead which seemed to snap the Ducks awake. Oregon would tie the set at 6 and 9 and then would not relinquish the lead for the rest of the set as the Ducks rolled to a 25-16 win going into half time.

Much like in the second set, the Ducks wouldn't trail often as they opened it up against CU after going down early 4-5. The Ducks would use a pair of runs to open up a lead and then close out the telling set on a 7-2 run to give the Ducks a match win in straight sets, taking the final set 25-18.

Through three sets, Brenner was set 40 times which coach Moore would like to see change. Suffering from the attention to Brenner was Ariana Williams who came into the match fourth in the conference in kills. "I thought we could have set Ari [Williams] a minimum of ten more times. I thought we went to Liz [Brenner] and Martenne [Bettendorf] way too much."

The Ducks look to continue improvement as they face Utah on Sunday. Colorado in turn continues their slide on the road. After falling to Oregon, the Buffaloes have dropped their road record to 2-5. What was good about this match for Duck fans, Oregon got up on a less talented team and put them away. Earlier in the year it seemed as though the Ducks played to the level of their competition but in this match up they played their game and beat their opponents soundly.