About 24 hours before Oregon Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota turned Reser Stadium into his own personal playground, another Civil War took place. The No. 13 ranked Oregon volleyball team visited Gill Coliseum in the last game of the year, only to be firmly beaten in four sets by a determined Beaver squad. This snapped a losing streak to the rival Ducks that dated back to 2011, and avenged a three set loss back in September. As I predicted, it was a lot more competitive than the Marcus Mariota show and it seems that both programs are on the upward swing.
Both teams are headed to the NCAA Tournament, which is kind of like March Madness except in December and without millions of Americans sneaking out of work to watch juicy first round matchups at the bar. In fact, you couldn’t even watch a volleyball tournament game on TV until the semis, which ESPN2 is graciously hosting.
This is too bad for an exciting sport that features some of the top female athletes in the country and has held some unbelievable games this year already. Stanford’s visit to Seattle on November 29 drew 8,646 fans and they were not disappointed after the Huskies gave the Cardinal their first loss of the season. The attendance was higher than any game the men’s basketball team drew last year, and the team deserved it. The Huskies and Cardinal are favorites to win the title this month.
Neither Oregon team has received quite that level of support, but fans will begin to flock if they can build on the success of their respective seasons. Oregon State features the Pac-12 coach of the year Taras Liskevych, who led a team that was picked to finish last in the conference all the way to the NCAA tournament. The Beavers have four wins against ranked teams, including last week’s beat down of their rival Ducks. Led by Pac-12 freshman of the year Mary-Kate Marshall and a tight group of four seniors, the Beavers play Creighton on Friday in Topeka, Kansas.
Their Eugene rivals were given the #10 seed at the tournament, despite losing their last two games of the season. This means they begin the tournament at home and hopefully students will pack into Matthew Knight Arena to see them take on Santa Clara Thursday evening. The Ducks are led by outside hitters Liz Brenner and Martenne Bettendorf, who both received all conference honors.
Will either of these squads be standing by the time ESPN2 covers the semis? Odds are against it, but crazier things have happened in sports. What I do know is that each of these programs has earned a round of applause for their seasons thus far. Regardless of the how the tournament goes, these teams have at least one more fan in me for next year.
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